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Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense vs. Microsoft Exchange

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/ACisco Secure Email Threat Defense provides protection against email threats that compromise an organization’s brand and operations. Its advanced threat detection capabilities uncover known, emerging and targeted threats. And it expands the scope of organizations' defenses to detect dangerous threats and rapidly search for and remediate threats across security controls. Secure Email Threat Defense's Artificial Intelligence and machine…N/A

    Microsoft Exchange

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMicrosoft Exchange is a secure email / messaging gateway with file archiving and encryption / data loss capability, available as a hosted service (Exchange Online) or installed (Exchange Server).N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Secure Email Threat DefenseMicrosoft Exchange
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Secure Email Threat DefenseMicrosoft Exchange
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Secure Email Threat DefenseMicrosoft Exchange
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense
    Cisco Email Security provides the first layer of defense against cyber threats and protects sensitive outbound data. It guards against spam, fraudulent senders, infected files whenever they become malicious and blocks risky URLs to prevent attacks. It also prevents data loss …
    Incentivized
    Microsoft
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    28 Answers
    94%
    Would buy again
    65 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    28 Answers
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    63 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    28 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    68 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    24 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    46 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    23 Answers
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    52 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Secure Email Threat DefenseMicrosoft Exchange
    Secure Email Gateway
    Comparison of Secure Email Gateway features of Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense and Microsoft Exchange
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense
    8.9
    28 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Microsoft Exchange
    7.3
    84 Ratings
    14% below category average
    Anti-malware8.716 Ratings6.567 Ratings
    Customizability8.816 Ratings8.079 Ratings
    Data Loss Protection8.215 Ratings8.368 Ratings
    Threat Detection9.928 Ratings6.566 Ratings
    Sandboxing8.115 Ratings7.444 Ratings
    End-to-End Encryption8.816 Ratings6.767 Ratings
    Management Tools9.727 Ratings8.080 Ratings
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    Enterprises
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    Score8.6 out of 10
    OpenText Core Email Threat Protection
    Score7.5 out of 10
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    User Ratings
    Cisco Secure Email Threat DefenseMicrosoft Exchange
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.9
    (28 ratings)
    9.0
    (102 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    8.5
    (6 ratings)
    Availability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    9.9
    (12 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.0
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Secure Email Threat DefenseMicrosoft Exchange
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I will certainly recommend Cisco Secure Email to my friends/colleagues, one look at the dashboard/statistics will actually convince any IT professional to use this product. We noticed an outstanding improvement in Email quality, most of the SPAM emails are caught, and our users have never been happier!
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Creating and receiving emails is simple. Managing contacts is a nice feature, especially connecting to Active Directory. Calendar management is also helpful and sharing access to others' calendars for scheduling meetings is useful. And reserving resources such as rooms or equipment is also useful. Personal and shared mailboxes are good features, as well. Tasks are a little lacking, but other than that, the features are thorough.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • Manages Junk Mail Well-We configured and tested our configuration to filter out the majority of junk mail hitting our inboxes.
    • Manages Graymail-We configured and tested our Cisco ETD for graymail filtering and reduced the amount of unwanted advertising and other legitimate emails.
    • Creating unique policies that were tailored to block or allow emails from certain senders.
    • Stopped malicious email traffic (e.g., malicious attachments and links) with rules for identifying and stripping potentially malicious attachments or links.
    • Allows easy configuration for other email security measures such as SPF, DMARC and DKIM.
    • Cisco engineers provide an annual free security health check. We took advantage of several security health checks where Cisco certified engineers go over the security setting of our Cisco ETD. We were provided a written report that highlighted strengths and weaknesses of our Cisco ETD setup.
    • Monitoring email traffic flow is almost overwhelming with the amount of information you can obtain from the portal. This gives valuable information to IT staff in terms of volume and type of emails the company is receiving.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • As we have a large user base of 11,000 users we use MailTips to avoid people getting confused with people with similar names in the organization.
    • The integration between Teams Meeting and Resource booking is generally very good. The Scheduling Assistance makes it easy to scan calendars and find free periods to provisionally scheduled events.
    • Marking yourself as Out of the Office and busy is easy, as is sharing your calendar within the team/organization or individuals.
    • Voicemail integration and the ability to receive missed chats in your inbox are highly used and useful.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • The web interface is definitely dated
    • The software updates to the user interface and the documentation online are not congruent. Some docs are old and information is lacking to make changes
    • The email filtering and email search features are really dated. And other tools are more user friendly
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Microsoft
    • The two main factors for the better reliability & Uptime of internally hosted Exchange Server depends on Exchange Server configuration and the level of investment the organization is willing to provide for hosting the Exchange Server On-Premise Environment. As the data is stored in the organization’s hardware, any disaster may lead to the loss of email and servers.
    • Losing data might affect business continuity and rebuilding it can be costly.
    • Security remains a major concern.
    • Security of data loss is main concern. To ensure that, organization needs to configure networks, systems and Exchange platform against possible threats.
    • Hardware and license costs are high.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    There is a 50/50 chance that we will renew. We are in the middle of moving from on-prem to the cloud so we may not need it once we are fully migrated.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Email and calendars in a business setting are requirements. And Microsoft continues to be the standard of business applications. Microsoft 365 makes Microsoft Exchange easy to use. Everything is in the cloud. Let Microsoft take care of the hardware, the software, and the security. You just enable your business users with the functionality they need.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    Good interface, easy to use and set up. If there were any issues, there is very good documentation and videos that one can follow for additional setup and best practices. As typical with most Cisco solutions, there are more features than needed for our purposes but good to know they are there in case of future needs
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange has come a long way over the years and has nowhere near the technical overhead required for support as it did back in 2003/2007 and prior. The integrations with Teams, Defender, Sharepoint, Copilot and many other products make it a solid and well-rounded tool used for many day-to-day tasks.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense's availability is great and reliable when you need it most. We haven't had any noticeable outages or issues.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Exchange is setup with multiple servers behind load balancers to provide high availability.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    I would say it's the best email product I've experienced.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Strong support with fast response. TAC can suggest best mail policy regarding customer challenges Some cases they need to do patch directly to appliance. TAC does not need to remote the appliance through our laptop. They use secure connection to appliance, check the logs and response through the problems
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    Microsoft
    We have a good enterprise agreement with Microsoft which affords us quick phone support. I have found the support staff knowledgeable and prompt with a solution when required. At times it may be difficult to schedule a call back, this is mainly due to our need for calls early in the morning which happens to be during a shift change at Microsoft support.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    The implementation went well, no issues or problems to report.
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    Microsoft
    Implementation/conversion can be quite complex and, unless you have certified Exchange administrators in-house, you should strongly consider a 3rd party consultant for this implementation.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco SETD, with a broad deployment and full integration with Microsoft 365 gives us a strong protection, especially where we can leverage its strengths: Microsoft‑365 integration, mailbox remediation, policy enforcement, and your visibility across Cisco tools.


    Proofpoint is better around user awareness (warning tags etc.), and continuity/archiving. Considering that we have a full Cisco stack, choosing Proofpoint would come with higher cost, learning curve, possible redundancy of features, licensing complexity.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    Microsoft Exchange Product The best cloud-based enterprise-grade archiving platform with a host of features that enable files to be securely archived and retrieved with advanced search options. This tool is very easy to use and has a User-friendly interface. It is a highly reliable platform that allows all employees to automatically store their data without any limitations. It offers a cost-effective solution with customized policy management. We are happy that the customer support team is always fast and concerned, and the product's uninterrupted service experience. It is very good that it stores data in real-time without losing it, even in the event of a disaster. The cost-effective solution and integration with other tools are seamless.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft
    The only time Exchange has failed us is when we did something to cause the failure.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Our email security has increased.
    • Users are now more confident about their email security.
    • Management of threat detection and prevention has become easier.
    • Finer controls on spam filtering gives customization capability.
    • GDPR compliance ensures peace of mind from a regulation point of view.
    • The quarantine feature has ensured that we do not lose important emails while they are being analyzed.
    Incentivized
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    Microsoft
    • It has been an important factor in allowing seamless communication with clients and scheduling business meetings, which in turn works in the company's favor.
    • Haven't noticed any negative impact Exchange has had on our ROI. The support team is also responsive and helpful.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Secure Email Threat Defense Screenshots

    Screenshot of an Impact Report showing efficacy metrics and ROI indicatorsScreenshot of a detailed view of phishing messagesScreenshot of the dashboard