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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Secure Firewall

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/ACisco Secure Firewall delivers comprehensive threat protection for modern, distributed networks. Built to support hybrid workforces and multicloud environments, it enables Zero Trust access, application visibility, and secure remote connectivity. With integration across the Cisco Secure portfolio, including SecureX and Talos threat intelligence, the firewall powers organizations to detect and stop more sophisticated threats. Centralized management simplifies policy enforcement, orchestration,…N/A

    Splunk AppDynamics

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AAppDynamics is an APM and Mobile APM program, with application mapping and predictive capabilities. These capacities enable automated remediation and code-level diagnostics in real time. It can be deployed on-premise or as a SaaS.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Secure Firewall
    We have problems indexing logs from FTDs (firepower threat defense)
    Incentivized
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    93%
    Would buy again
    193 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    70 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    90%
    Delivers good value for the price
    160 Answers
    94%
    Delivers good value for the price
    64 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    92%
    Happy with the feature set
    191 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    70 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    86%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    140 Answers
    96%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    55 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    164 Answers
    95%
    Implementation went as expected
    61 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Firewall
    Comparison of Firewall features of Cisco Secure Firewall and Splunk AppDynamics
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Firewall
    8.2
    196 Ratings
    5% below category average
    Splunk AppDynamics
    -
    Ratings
    Identification Technologies8.1177 Ratings00 Ratings
    Visualization Tools7.8175 Ratings00 Ratings
    Content Inspection8.3175 Ratings00 Ratings
    Policy-based Controls8.5183 Ratings00 Ratings
    Active Directory and LDAP7.9156 Ratings00 Ratings
    Firewall Management Console8.0182 Ratings00 Ratings
    Reporting and Logging7.7184 Ratings00 Ratings
    VPN8.8164 Ratings00 Ratings
    High Availability8.9177 Ratings00 Ratings
    Stateful Inspection8.8171 Ratings00 Ratings
    Proxy Server7.793 Ratings00 Ratings
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Cisco Secure Firewall and Splunk AppDynamics
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Firewall
    -
    Ratings
    Splunk AppDynamics
    9.1
    83 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Application monitoring00 Ratings9.383 Ratings
    Database monitoring00 Ratings8.979 Ratings
    Threshold alerts00 Ratings9.281 Ratings
    Predictive capabilities00 Ratings8.981 Ratings
    Application performance management console00 Ratings9.480 Ratings
    Collaboration tools00 Ratings9.269 Ratings
    Server availability and performance monitoring00 Ratings9.353 Ratings
    Server usage monitoring and capacity forecasting00 Ratings8.852 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Small Businesses
    SonicWall NSA Series
    Score8.3 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Barracuda CloudGen Firewall
    Score9.6 out of 10
    SolarWinds AppOptics
    Score7.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software
    Score9 out of 10
    SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
    Score7.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.3
    (203 ratings)
    8.9
    (83 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.5
    (6 ratings)
    8.3
    (5 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (6 ratings)
    8.9
    (22 ratings)
    Availability
    9.5
    (6 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (3 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.7
    (131 ratings)
    6.4
    (7 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.7
    (6 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Configurability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.4
    (5 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    9.5
    (3 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Secure FirewallSplunk AppDynamics
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I can't think of scenarios where it is less appropriate, unless we are talking about real tiny businesses. More businesses will find Cisco Secure Firewall an outstanding tool to use, love, and trust from a reputable Network giant vendor. It is a must for businesses that want to focus on what they are doing, and leaving the network security for the pros.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Platforms for software as a service (SaaS) frequently cater to a large number of users with a variety of needs and usage patterns. Because AppDynamics offers multi-tenant monitoring capabilities to track performance across various customer environments, it is a good choice for SaaS platform monitoring. SaaS providers can maximize resource utilization, proactively detect and resolve performance issues, and provide a dependable and consistent user experience for their clients with AppDynamics.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • Cisco's firewall actually does its job of blocking what it is supposed to block. We had an old Firewall that led to slippages. Cisco catches 97% of malware and vulnerabilities during testing. For Coitiar, that means an engineer who clicks a link with malware is handled quickly.
    • We actually tested if failovers would affect running sessions. We pulled our primary unit during a certification submission period. The firewall just switched, and the connection kept running.
    • The AI assistant in policy management is excellent, and for our lean team, it makes the whole process easy and efficient. I don't have to audit 200 policies manually; the AI steps in and does its thing.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • Business Transaction Monitoring is one of its signature strengths. This represents a major differentiator from generic infrastructure monitoring tools.
    • AI‑driven anomaly detection and intelligent alerting provide a significant advantage over traditional monitoring.
    • When combined with Splunk AppDynamics, full‑stack observability becomes a key part of Cisco/Splunk’s unified observability strategy.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • I mean I think a lot of the technology with managing them is getting better. There's a few cons to the new firewall management console. You can't sort through routes or I think you can with interfaces now, but there's a few caveats that they haven't really worked out yet, but they're implementing AI into it, so it's getting to be a lot easier to use.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • AppDynamics may enhance its capacity to track transactions through complex distributed systems and microservices, offering a more comprehensive understanding of application behavior.
    • Better search and filtering capabilities would enable engineers to quickly obtain deeper context by drilling down into individual data points.
    • AppDynamics might be more widely available to engineers and organizations if it offered subscription plans or tiered pricing options.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    It works really well. We can do most anything we want or need to with it, and you don’t have to have a doctorate or multiple certs to necessarily figure it out. The thing that would probably have to happen to make us switch would be if we just got priced out - Cisco’s more powerful and higher bandwidth models cost a pretty penny.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    cause it achieves all our targets and we are satisfied with using Splunk also stable no technical challenges or problem caused by Splunk a lot for innovative integrations also all layers are using splunk NOC team , DEV team, application support team, managers security team also in forcasting for EA team
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    i think overall after ALOT of tac cases it works allright now. But still have alot of issues if you use cloud based mangement. fx, if you open 2 windows of access policys, both of the pages, rules starte to jump form side to side. if you then open one more list, its start to jump even faster. if you close the 2 of them, its back to normal. ALSO the extended access lists for VPN, SUCKS. Its the tiniest window when opening the editor, and you are not able to give the rules names, Which means finding and editing rules SUCKS, its a horrible experience, and eveytime we have to we want to yell :P
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Splunk AppDynamics is great product that has positively maintained solid application workflows. It has simple and clean UI that displays graphical representation of our database and application behaviour. It gives us an opportunity to customize and set most reliable alerts and data configurations that aligns with our policies. It is easy to monitor operation hypothesis and lower RCA if you identify application coding errors.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    Rationale:


    Strengths:


    High availability (HA) and failover configurations ensure continuous operation during hardware or network issues.


    Minimal unplanned outages reported; system remains responsive under full inspection load.


    Centralized monitoring and proactive alerts help prevent downtime.




    Minor Considerations:


    Occasional maintenance windows or updates may require brief service interruptions.


    Complex integrations with other systems may sometimes require extra attention to maintain uptime.




    Overall, Cisco Secure Firewall is highly available and dependable, supporting business continuity and operational resilience.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the availability of Splunk AppDynamics as a 9. Overall, the platform has proven to be highly reliable and is available when we need it. It consistently supports our monitoring and performance management needs across critical applications and infrastructure. There have been occasional issues with platform availability, such as intermittent application errors or brief unplanned outages. However, these instances have been infrequent and typically resolved quickly, minimizing any significant impact on operations. The stability and uptime of the platform have met our expectations, and we continue to rely on it as a core component of our APM strategy.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    We have not had any performance issues with Cisco Secure Firewall, even with DPI and IPS enabled, we have not seen a performance hit. Emoployes have not complained about any slow network speeds that could have been attributed to the secure firewall it has always been something else within the office network.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the performance of Splunk AppDynamics as a 6. While the platform generally delivers the expected functionality, we’ve experienced periodic slowness—particularly with page loads and report generation. These performance issues can be frustrating, especially when trying to quickly access critical data during incident response or analysis. One contributing factor may be our use of a shared controller environment with other enterprises, which can introduce resource contention and impact overall responsiveness. In some cases, this has led to delays in accessing dashboards or completing complex queries. Despite these challenges, the platform remains a valuable tool, and we’re exploring options to improve performance, including potential changes to our deployment model and support agreements.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    I rarely get the support I need in the time I need it. Often, while they are "looking at packet captures and going to get back to me" I fix the problem on my own. If you were to look at my TAC cases over the past year, you would see some very lengthy cases that usually ended with me contacting the TAC person and telling them to just close the case
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    AppDynamics has its own community site that includes forums and a knowledge base. On the forums, you can converse with other members of the community and ask technical questions as you have them. Though this forum isn’t filled with people there are active members for you to gain some valuable insights.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    very good
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    was a good training but questions was answered not so good. Training was "Fundamentals of Cisco Firewall Threat Defense and Intrusion Prevention (SFWIPF)".
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the online training for Splunk AppDynamics as a 7. The training was generally acceptable and covered the core concepts and functionality of the platform. However, there were some challenges with communication during sessions—particularly around clarity and instructor engagement—which occasionally made it difficult to fully grasp certain topics. Additionally, the training could benefit from being more focused and tailored to specific roles or use cases. A more structured approach with clearer learning paths and practical, hands-on examples would enhance the overall effectiveness and help users apply the knowledge more confidently in real-world scenarios.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Our initial implementation was aided by Cisco's professional services and was excellent. The engineer was very knowledgeable and helped us work through issues while building out our new internet security edge Part of this involved tools to migrate the firewall configuration from old to new.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate our satisfaction with the implementation of Splunk AppDynamics as a 9. The deployment process was smooth and well-coordinated, thanks to the collaborative efforts between Cisco Professional Services, our internal business stakeholders, and agency technical teams. Key Insights from the Implementation: Cross-functional Collaboration Was Critical: Engaging both technical and business teams early in the process ensured that the platform was configured to meet a wide range of operational and strategic needs. Value of Expert Guidance: Cisco’s Professional Services provided invaluable expertise, helping us navigate complex configurations and tailor the solution to our environment. Their involvement accelerated deployment and ensured best practices were followed. Importance of Planning and Communication: A well-defined implementation roadmap and regular communication across teams helped us stay aligned, manage expectations, and address challenges proactively. Scalable Architecture: We designed the implementation with scalability in mind, allowing us to expand usage across agencies and applications without major rework. Overall, the implementation laid a strong foundation for our APM program and positioned us for long-term success.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    Cisco Secure Firewall works better with the Cisco ecosystem when we can utilize it and feels beefy enough when we utilize it in the data center. The Fortinet we have found are great, small cost boxes for remote offices with a better UI then Cisco Secure Firewalls. The feature set included with the firewalls feels similar from a security point of view.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    It is distinguished from these programs because the platform provides visualizations of application processes, showing the interplay between various parts and services. Understanding the architecture of complicated apps and finding their weak spots is greatly aided by this.
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    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    A solid, realistic rating most people give for Cisco Secure Firewall pricing is 7 or 8 out of 10 (because the product is strong but licensing can be a bit complex)
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    While the overall value of the Splunk AppDynamics platforms is strong, the pricing structure and contract terms can be complex and difficult to navigate. Unit pricing, licensing tiers, and billing frequency are not always intuitive, which can make it challenging to align purchases with the State’s evolving needs. I rely heavily on our Account Manager to help interpret and tailor the licensing model to our specific requirements. Their support has been invaluable in ensuring we make informed decisions. The most impactful change would be to simplify the licensing and pricing model. Clearer documentation, more transparent pricing tiers, and streamlined purchasing processes would significantly improve the experience and reduce administrative overhead.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    Cisco Secure Firewall has never given us any trouble, it has stayed up at all times, upgrading the appliance has also become much simpler. We operate the appliance in a HA pair, so 0% downtime within our organisation. During switchover while upgrading, not a single packet seems to get lost, so this has been a very valuable asset to our company.
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    On a scale of 1 to 10, I would rate the overall scalability of Splunk AppDynamics as a 7. The platform is designed to support enterprise-wide deployments across multiple departments and sites, and it performs well in large-scale environments. Its architecture allows for horizontal scaling and supports a wide range of application types and infrastructures. However, the agent management and deployment process can be complex and time-consuming, especially when onboarding a large number of applications or systems. Coordinating agent installation, configuration, and updates across diverse environments requires careful planning and often significant manual effort. Streamlining these processes—perhaps through more centralized management tools or automation—would enhance scalability and reduce operational overhead. Despite these challenges, once deployed, AppDynamics scales effectively and provides consistent performance and visibility across the enterprise.
    Incentivized
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    Professional Services
    Cisco
    was not involved
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    Our experience with the professional services team supporting Splunk AppDynamics has been exceptional. They demonstrated deep technical expertise, strong collaboration skills, and a clear understanding of our business objectives. Their guidance was instrumental in the successful implementation of our APM program and platform integration. The rating of 9 reflects our high level of satisfaction, with a small margin left to acknowledge that continuous improvement is always possible. Overall, their support has been a key factor in the success of our deployment.
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Cisco Secure Firewalls help with our segmentation policies and protect our company assets
    • Cisco Secure Firewalls help identify when our policies have changed on or network and troubleshoot network outages
    • Cisco Secure Firewalls help identify threats through Cisco Talos and other threat feeds that they ingest
    Incentivized
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    Cisco
    • Through the identification of performance bottlenecks and efficient resource allocation, AppDynamics has contributed to cost savings and resource optimization. This has a direct positive impact on our overall return on investment.
    • While AppDynamics' numerous capabilities help maximize efficiency, they may place a strain on your system. Organizations with limited infrastructure capacity may have difficulties and therefore give this serious thought before implementing it.
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Secure Firewall Screenshots

    Screenshot of Cisco Secure 1200 Series Firewall FamilyScreenshot of Cisco Secure 4200 SeriesScreenshot of Cisco Secure 4200 SeriesScreenshot of Cisco Secure Firewall 1200 Stack FamilyScreenshot of Cisco Secure Firewall 200 SeriesScreenshot of Cisco Secure Firewall 200 Series