Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW) vs Zscaler Internet Access

Likelihood to Recommend

Excellent enterprise grade solution with full features to perform any security scenario. Available licenses that can be customized to suit the security needs. Backed by Cisco Talos security centre that provides IPS and security signatures to keep the business protected at all times. Backed by manufacturer support and excellent help desk resources.

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Victor Lau

Network Architect

BSSTelecommunications, 10,001+ employees

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[Zscaler Internet Access] is very well suited for scenarios where one is looking for hassle free internet and network connection. It ensures that your users can connect to any networks and they will be secure. Additional plus is ability to deploy Zscaler client to your company smartphones - this gives complete network protection. We only encounter a few issues with Zscaler Internet Access (mainly false-positives) but these were promptly resolve by the vendor.

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Wojciech Poludniewski

Chief Information Officer

Polcom GroupConstruction, 501-1000 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Zscaler Internet Access

Identification Technologies

Visualization Tools

Content Inspection

Policy-based Controls

Active Directory and LDAP

Firewall Management Console

Reporting and Logging

VPN

High Availability

Stateful Inspection

Proxy Server

Pros

Its very fast
Cisco products are generally very stable.
Cisco is on top of bug fixes.
You get well built hardware at this price point.
Compatibility with most 3rd party equipment.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Speed - get access to your company tools without any hiccups or delay.
Secure - keeping data protected for the company and allowing access only to authorized people.
Ease of deployment - minimal setup needed and little to none connectivity issues.

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Verified User

Director in Sales

Computer Software Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Cons

The integration between ASA/Firewall functions and SourceFire functions could use some work.
Some little glitches in the interface which require refreshes or additional clicks.
Cost is high but it is likely because you're now buying two products in one.

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Verified User

Engineer in Engineering

Government Administration Company, 501-1000 employees

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Chat or email support is not available. Only option is to either call them or raise a ticket by logging into their website.
Pricing is not transparent and quote based.
Access to websites is a little too slow with Zscaler monitoring on.

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Raman Ahuja

Associate Consultant

Tata Consultancy ServicesInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees

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Usability

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW) 8.0

Based on 1 answer

It's overall very great, however the Management Console needs updating to fix the slowness of policy and rule deployments.

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Kenneth Ma

AVP Network Security Team Lead

East West BankFinancial Services, 1001-5000 employees

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Zscaler Internet Access 9.0

Based on 1 answer

Zscaler is a mandatory solution required by almost every large organization with a workforce working remotely or using cloud-based apps. Its deployment is relatively easy and it keeps on working in the background without actively bothering the user. Apart from a few weird messages which a user is unable to comprehend, Zscaler is able to provide fast and safe access to the internet and other external applications.

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Raman Ahuja

Associate Consultant

Tata Consultancy ServicesInformation Technology and Services, 10,001+ employees

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Support Rating

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW) 8.0

Based on 6 answers

Cisco support is not at all suitable for this product, at least. It takes a long for them to help us with our server issues. A lot of the time, the customer support person keeps on redirecting calls to another person. They need to be well versed with the terminologies of the product they are supporting us with. Support needs a lot of improvement. Cisco Fire Linux OS, the operating system behind Cisco Firepower NGFW (formerly Sourcefire), also doesn't receive regular patches. In short, average customer service.

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Kuntal Das

Graduate Research Assistant

University of Colorado DenverHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees

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Zscaler Internet Access 8.1

Based on 5 answers

I cannot give a fair rating for this as I have not had to contact Zscaler support. There was one time we had to contact them because we needed to check if they were having issues on their end. Our ISP was actually the problem but support seemed very friendly.

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Cody Plassmeyer

IT Network Specialist

Central Electric Power CooperativeUtilities, 51-200 employees

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Alternatives Considered

We selected Firepower after evaluating all features in nonproduction environment and validated against other similar vendors such as Fortinet, Palo Alto, Checkpoint, Sophos and Watchguard. NGFW provides flexibility in selecting the licensing model and is very cost-effective, easy to integrate with third-party tools and applications and offers user-friendly control.

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Verified User

Manager in Information Technology

Information Technology and Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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The Zscaler solution was selected in order to fulfill the needs of the variety of networks that we manage since the device requirements are so varied. Also, it was required to be as transparent and non-intrusive as possible to improve efficiency. Also, the basic implementation was simple and fast enough

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Samuel Hadid

IT Security Engineer

SofttekHealth, Wellness and Fitness, 10,001+ employees

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Return on Investment

Not having security levels on the Cisco Firepower NGFW (formerly Sourcefire) negatively impacted when we cutover.
It has been rock solid in the running, has not been any downtime.

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Cody Plassmeyer

IT Network Specialist

Central Electric Power CooperativeUtilities, 51-200 employees

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ROI is there and it is safeguarding the data and user access to net.
Being a cloud based can be scaled up when required.
Third parties can be allowed based on the company IT policies (Clients or Vendors etc.) for business perspective.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Oil & Energy Company, 10,001+ employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Rating Summary

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Zscaler Internet Access

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Zscaler Internet Access

Cisco Secure Firewall (formerly Firepower NGFW)

Zscaler Internet Access