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Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vs. Splunk Enterprise Security

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Secure Firewall Management Center (formerly Firepower Management Center) are a firewall policy and intrusion detection appliance management system, providing an administrative nerve center for managing critical Cisco network security solutions. It provides complete and unified management over firewalls, application control, intrusion prevention, URL filtering, and advanced malware protection. Easily go from managing a firewall to controlling applications to investigating and remediating…N/A

    Splunk Enterprise Security

    Score8.3 out of 10
    N/ASplunk Enterprise Security is an analytics-driven SIEM that helps to combat threats with actionable intelligence and advanced analytics at scale.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    96%
    Would buy again
    23 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    109 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    23 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    90 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    23 Answers
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    103 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    88%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    15 Answers
    91%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    80 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    96%
    Implementation went as expected
    23 Answers
    91%
    Implementation went as expected
    90 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Firewall Security Management
    Comparison of Firewall Security Management features of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and Splunk Enterprise Security
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center
    8.1
    21 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Splunk Enterprise Security
    -
    Ratings
    Policy planning and rule management8.021 Ratings00 Ratings
    Automated Policy Orchestration7.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Device Discovery8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy Compliance Auditing8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Attack Path Simulation Testing7.516 Ratings00 Ratings
    Anomalous Event or Behavior Deviation8.019 Ratings00 Ratings
    Vulnerability Scans8.516 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Rule Cleanup9.518 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
    Comparison of Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) features of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and Splunk Enterprise Security
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center
    -
    Ratings
    Splunk Enterprise Security
    8.4
    107 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Centralized event and log data collection00 Ratings7.1105 Ratings
    Correlation00 Ratings8.9104 Ratings
    Event and log normalization/management00 Ratings8.9105 Ratings
    Deployment flexibility00 Ratings7.9106 Ratings
    Integration with Identity and Access Management Tools00 Ratings8.9101 Ratings
    Custom dashboards and workspaces00 Ratings9.8107 Ratings
    Host and network-based intrusion detection00 Ratings7.9101 Ratings
    Data integration/API management00 Ratings7.9103 Ratings
    Behavioral analytics and baselining00 Ratings8.899 Ratings
    Rules-based and algorithmic detection thresholds00 Ratings7.9100 Ratings
    Response orchestration and automation00 Ratings7.992 Ratings
    Reporting and compliance management00 Ratings8.9100 Ratings
    Incident indexing/searching00 Ratings8.0106 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Palo Alto Panorama
    Score8.7 out of 10
    IBM Security QRadar SIEM
    Score8.9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Palo Alto Panorama
    Score8.7 out of 10
    SolarWinds Security Event Manager (SEM)
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.5
    (24 ratings)
    7.1
    (109 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    7.0
    (12 ratings)
    Availability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (4 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.0
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    8.0
    (7 ratings)
    7.3
    (8 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.7
    (98 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.1
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Secure Firewall Management CenterSplunk Enterprise Security
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    FMC is feature-rich and user-friendly. Cisco firewalls can run on standalone mode (FDM) but fewer features are supported on FDM. FMC is a must when working with Cisco Firewall. Migration from Cisco ASA to Cisco FTD is easy. There is a tool (FMT) that converts and imports the cisco IOS configuration file to FMC. FMC runs in VM or can be purchased as a physical appliance. The downside is that FMC is not quite fast and has bugs, especially when running in the older version 5x. and 6x.
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    Cisco
    Based on my experience, Splunk is a strong git for some environments and a poor match for others. The distinction is primarily based on infrastructure complexity and budget. It's perfect for large enterprises with a mix of on-prem/cloud infrastructure. It's not a perfect match for small teams with restricted resources.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • Great protection and security against the multiple digital virus attacks.
    • Provides detailed logs to track any threat and helps to secure the network promptly.
    • VPN service for remote access of important organizational applications.
    • Best management tool for controlling data and bandwidth resources.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • Writes Powerful Queries: The queries that can be written using the Splunk Query Language are very powerful and highly customizable to meet every need. Ex: Writing queries to search the intersection of two different sources like Network and Endpoint Logs.
    • Offers Dashboard Abilities: Helps build complex panels for Dashboards in addition to providing several out-of-the-box panels. Ex: creating panels to calculate the performance of analysts in a given timezone.
    • Helpful Search Aids: It helps to set up complex custom alerts very easily. The interesting fields section is very helpful while threat hunting. Ex: It shows all the users and the frequency of each in a failed login event. The user list on the interesting fields is useful to look for suspicious logins.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • Stability when managing firewalls, we're having issues with Firewall 01 and Firewall 02 remaining in sync
    • Reporting when it comes to access control policy rules - there is no way to export a report of the rules easily. Using a custom Python script on the Cisco forums is the only way to easily export a CSV.
    • Support for policy and route-based site-to-site VPN was not available until 6.6.0 and later. This forced us to purchase ASAs to bridge that gap.
    • Dashboard reporting - when clicking a link for more information, nothing displays. Currently working with Cisco on the support case, which has been escalated.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • Improved User Interface Customization: While the interface is generally intuitive, providing more options for users to customize their dashboards and views would enhance the overall user experience. Tailoring the interface to specific roles or use cases could be a valuable addition.
    • Simplified Alert Management: Streamlining the process of managing alerts, such as grouping or categorizing them based on severity or type, would make it easier for security teams to prioritize and respond to incidents effectively.
    • Expanded Threat Intelligence Feeds: Increasing the variety and sources of threat intelligence feeds available within ES would provide a broader context for identifying and mitigating emerging threats, ensuring a more comprehensive defense against evolving attack vectors.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    We are very satisfied with SecureX and it's adaptive, active nature in protecting or data and systems. It's easy to administer, update, review notifications and update when necessary. Cisco's security practice fits into our needs and continues to evolve as global cyber events change. SecureX is easy to migrate to new cisco gear as we upgrade to newer models when supports ends on older gear. Enabling fast ROI during these capital expenditure projects.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    We are very happy with Splunk and would advise anyone to take a serious look at it. It might look pricey but the rewards Splunk offers seem endless.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    Overall usability is an eight for me because it is easy to manage the firewall policies and monitor the devices' health. The configurations are all done in the GUI which makes it more convenient and hassle free. You can also see the devices' health and the progress of the task thru its taskbar.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Maintaining hundreds or even 1000+ SOC use cases is really difficult, considering that the Data sources may not always send the data. A module that detects data freshness issues and detect data format changes would be a great help. the main challenge today using Splunk Enterprise Security is making sure that the detection rules are still working properly given all the changes that occur in data source applications. Also, maintaining the data collects on tens of thousands of servers and more than 100k workstations is a real company IT challenge: the splunkbase forwarder may not support old OS anymore, while these are the most important to monitor. Moving to the Open Telemetry collector has become essential so that only 1 agent is required for both SIEM and application observability.
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    Since moving to Cisco secure management center from firepower management center we've had no application issues, outages or any other problems. It's always been there for us and always provides us the necessary protection and notification when we need it. Been very happy with all of our Cisco systems over our tenure to date.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    I don't think I've ever seen Splunk ES go fully offline or have any downtime greater than a few minutes on rare occasions.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    It takes a long time for items to load if you are just generally searching through logs. It is best to use the data models which load faster but can be strange in terms of what is coming from which logs where. Yes, you can look it up, but this also requires familiarity with where things are and how to look them up.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    We have the direct support of the manufacturer through its service channels, the attention is 24/7, and the response time is acceptable. The support for this tool is almost nil. It all depends on the level of implementation is carried out so that it can fail and request collaboration. Anyway, the manufacturer backs the entire Cisco Firepower Management Center (FMC series appliances) solution.
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    Cisco
    It's good when it's responsive, but I've had times where I had to wait quite a while for a response. But these are typically the exceptions rather than the rule. When you do get a response it is always well-informed and appropriate. I would say they've been trending better over time with this.
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    I experienced only on-line training, but the trainers were very professional and competent. Maybe it could be more useful if they also have an experience in projects because sometimes they didn't have a real project experience to communicate to the students. Anyway, it was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself, aven if I have more than 10 years of Splunk activity experience.
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    It was very interesting and I learned many thing that's very difficoult (or maybe impossible!) to have by myself. The only problem was that, when I worked with the Splunk Professional Services, I found some difference between the training contents and the information from PS. In addition is required a long experience on Splunk Enterprise for the data ingestion part, in other words I'm able to work with ES because I'm worling on Splunk since 11 years, otherwise I'd some problem.
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Cisco secure firewall management center is easy to install, moderate to setup in conjunction with firewall hardware, and administration of policy changes afterwards is pretty straight forward. And flexible to add more advanced security configurations as needed. Cisco support website is pretty good for researching how to documentation too. Cisco secure firewall management center enables integration to SecureX - the cloud security protection service. And AMP which protects packet flow with real time analysis. Cisco secure fmc is the evolved name for cisco firepower management center so for those customers who have firepower this is a simple migration.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    It's a fantatic product and it was very useful the presence of Splunk Professional Services for the Design Phase and the final Health Check.
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We are managing multiple customers having a large number of Cisco devices that need to be managed by a single platform. For that reason, we have selected the Cisco Firewall Management Center than checkpoint firewall management. It simplifies and automates newly bought cisco firewalls at remote branch offices to manage, configure and troubleshoot them.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Splunk enterprise is the only solution that we’ve been able to identify that provides risk based alerting, which allows our SOC to reduce analyst fatigue which would be a huge problem without it. Before RBA, there were thousands of alerts a day and it was impossible to review all of them
    Incentivized
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    for my exterience, unit pricing and billing frequency are correct. As I already said, I hint to have more discount flexibility, expecially with new customers, because there are competitors less expensive and very aggressive that are dangerous. In addition the possibility to don't pay the license for the development period could be a very interesting feature for the final customers.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    - 8 out of 10 and took 2 for the data pipeline and administration part. Even if you'd like to improve yourself or your team, you have to pay a lot of money and it could be more than GIAC education + cert. - Normalization for Data models and CPU-based searches can be a problem sometimes.
    Incentivized
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    Professional Services
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco
    I had a fantastic experience with Splunk Professional Services: they worked with us in our last SON project (a SOC migration for a very large customer) and helped to build a multi tenent environment even if ES isn't a multi tenant platform. Th Splunk PS was a very professional and competent people, he is italian and was able to speak with our italian customers.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • It's a very straightforward and user-friendly tool that has enhanced the total detection of malware and other threats t from intrusion into our network.
    • Provides stable deep network scanning, security visibility, and protection from unauthorized access.
    • The platform modular allows us to deploy across multiple budget cycles.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • We have a 100% success rate on all our ES implementations due to the amazing documentation and Splunk enablement on the subject.
    • Our Splunk ES business has grown 100% YoY for the last 3 years.
    • In terms of long term management and maintenance, ES has been highly stable and predictable, reducing our overhead on costly services team for ad hoc maintenance work.
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