Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services vs. Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Cisco offers a threat-focused next-generation firewall (NGFW), the ASA 5500-X Series. The ASA 5500 Series platforms can run either the Cisco ASA Firewall or Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD). The series features appliances in a variety of form factors, including standalone options for small and midsize businesses, ruggedized appliances for extreme environments, midsize appliances for security at the Internet edge, and high-performance appliances for enterprise data centers.N/A
Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Score 9.7 out of 10
N/A
The VM-Series is a virtualized form of Palo Alto next-generation firewall that can be deployed in a range of cloud environments. The VM-Series natively analyzes all traffic in a single pass to determine the application identity, the content within, and the user identity.N/A
Pricing
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesPalo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesVirtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsCisco ASA 5500-X pricing starts at ~$400 and scales up to $20,000 for higher capacity appliances.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesPalo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Considered Both Products
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services

No answer on this topic

Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Chose Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
The above firewalls are great but the Palo Alto is the king. The Palo Alto does everything from layer 3 to layer 7. It gives visibility to the network, unlike other firewalls. When configured properly it will monitor and report on each and every packet that enters and leaves …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesPalo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Firewall
Comparison of Firewall features of Product A and Product B
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services
9.1
30 Ratings
7% above category average
Palo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
9.5
6 Ratings
11% above category average
Identification Technologies9.228 Ratings9.76 Ratings
Visualization Tools9.124 Ratings9.56 Ratings
Content Inspection9.129 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Policy-based Controls9.828 Ratings9.56 Ratings
Active Directory and LDAP9.829 Ratings9.56 Ratings
Firewall Management Console9.230 Ratings9.46 Ratings
Reporting and Logging8.829 Ratings9.36 Ratings
VPN9.830 Ratings9.26 Ratings
High Availability9.828 Ratings8.85 Ratings
Stateful Inspection8.14 Ratings10.06 Ratings
Proxy Server7.23 Ratings9.44 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesPalo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Small Businesses
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
pfSense
pfSense
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series
Score 9.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesPalo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Likelihood to Recommend
9.4
(30 ratings)
9.5
(8 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.7
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.2
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.4
(26 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(29 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER ServicesPalo Alto Networks Virtualized Next-Generation Firewalls - VM Series
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
This firewall is best suited for the network edge/perimeter deployment. The next gen features works very well and the remote access VPN is also very much suitable for the organizations which have a huge user base working remotely. The Remote Access VPN is very much customizable and the authentication integration option like LDAP and RADIUS provides and addon.
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Palo Alto Networks
PaloAlto VM-200 is a virtualized firewall with high processing power and network edge protection. The great advantage is being able to implement in a VMware environment without worrying about hardware, rack space, physical network connections and others. It can be easily managed via the web and remotely to create protection, access and reporting rules. The VM-200 firewall can be used by any company, small or large because it has several models available according to the real needs of each one.
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Pros
Cisco
  • The Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services model works perfectly for network edge protection scenarios.
  • It allows for the creation and connection of sites through site-to-site VPN configuration.
  • It enables remote connection and home office with remote SSL or IPSEC VPN.
  • It has layer 7 traffic protection and visibility.
  • It has anti-malware protection from start to finish.
  • The configuration is easy to perform.
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Palo Alto Networks
  • Decrypt internet traffic
  • daily reporting of top internet users
  • classify internet traffic in real-time to allow us to understand the organization needs.
  • Strong AI capabilities
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Cons
Cisco
  • URL Filtering feature could be easier to utilize for beginners
  • I'd like to see a visual of VPN networks setup and show the functioning or malfunctioning status to assist in making troubleshooting easier
  • Recommendations on ACLs for beginners based on their account creation date
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Palo Alto Networks
  • High Availability can be improved to allow active-active deployment
  • All command line documentation to provide and support automation
  • It will be nice to have link aggregation just like in the hardware firewall models.
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Likelihood to Renew
Cisco
Ever since we installed Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services we have never had to deal with an attack. We can see in the logs almost every day hackers attempting to break into our networks and failing. We also have the ability to blacklist every IP address that attempts to break into our firewalls
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Usability
Cisco
Cisco firepower provides automatation for an organisations security operations to detect and stop the most advanced threats fast. It also assists in preventing attacks in using intelligence and innovative solutions.
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Reliability and Availability
Cisco
We have never had an outage caused by firewall failure. We have had a few outages caused by the internet failing or cloud applications going offline but never a firewall breaking down. When making changes we have a very strong change control, major software updates are always carried out out of working hours. At places where we have two firewalls in HA, we are able to do upgrades in working ours and the users will never know that an upgrade is taking place, that how great these firewalls are
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cisco
The Cisco ASA 5500X with Firepower performance needs consideration before deploying. Although the solution is Pay as you grow, adding additional features to the system has a negative impact on overall throughput. I would more like now only to deploy the Cisco FPR units as they have better performance and will last the test of time.
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Cisco
I would recommend the purchase of the Smartnet 24x7 service in the case of a unit and the Smartnet 8x5NBD in the case of only one appliance installed on site. This service is important to always have the latest firmware updates, corrective updates and especially the hardware warranty and maintenance service in case of problems. The service is done by phone or on the official Cisco website and I can say that it is very good and efficient.
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Palo Alto Networks
Palo Alto VM series are best selling and industry's top-selling security product which customers prefer while securing their public cloud environment
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
We implemented a centralized management of all our Cisco ASA 5500-x with FirePOWER Services so that we can have a holistic view of all our sites in London and other European countries. This also helps when making changes, instead of login on to each firewall we can use Firepower Management Center (FMC) to central deploy changes across all devices
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Palo Alto Networks
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Cisco
Previous],] I was using the [pfSense] in my organization but when i switched to [Cisco ASA 5500-X with FirePOWER Services] I realized there are lots of issue and missing security features in [pfSense]. The deployment and configuration is very easy as compare to [pfSense]. I highly recommend this product to everyone.
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Palo Alto Networks
palo alto firewalls are application-oriented systems. They can beat other product which are based on layer 3/4 inspection. Vm series are also quickly available and could be useful in urgent deployment needs . other vendors like Fortinet and cisco could take much more time to provide the VM and in some cases installation and license validation are complicated
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Return on Investment
Cisco
  • Working of remote workforce made easy
  • Security was enhanced on the data traffic shared with the vendors due to the use of VPNs
  • Inbound attacks were mostly blocked on the edge and saved a lot of resources (which could had been used in case of attacks getting successful on the application servers)
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Palo Alto Networks
  • ROI has been achieved quickly through lack of security incidents.
  • Inline filtering happens at line rate, unline Sourcefire from Cisco.
  • Great incentives from PAN to switch made a difference in the choice to change.
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