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Cisco Secure Network Analytics vs. Zscaler Internet Access

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Secure Network Analytics

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ACisco Stealthwatch is a network behavior analysis product based on technology acquired by Cisco with its Lancope acquisition in 2015.N/A

    Zscaler Internet Access

    Score8.9 out of 10
    N/AZscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA) is a secure web gateway (SWG), delivering cloud native cyberthreat protection and zero trust access to the internet and SaaS apps.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Zscaler
    Chose Zscaler Internet Access
    Zscaler Internet Access is a great platform.
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    100%
    Would buy again
    12 Answers
    99%
    Would buy again
    284 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    11 Answers
    98%
    Delivers good value for the price
    245 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    12 Answers
    99%
    Happy with the feature set
    284 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    12 Answers
    97%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    207 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    92%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    227 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Identity Management
    Comparison of Identity Management features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Network Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    5.0
    2 Ratings
    55% below category average
    Multi-Factor Authentication00 Ratings5.02 Ratings
    Endpoint Security
    Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Network Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    10.0
    2 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence
    Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Network Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    8.5
    216 Ratings
    6% above category average
    Network Analytics00 Ratings8.7217 Ratings
    Threat Recognition00 Ratings8.3214 Ratings
    Vulnerability Classification00 Ratings8.5191 Ratings
    Automated Alerts and Reporting00 Ratings8.2205 Ratings
    Threat Analysis00 Ratings8.8203 Ratings
    Threat Intelligence Reporting00 Ratings8.5199 Ratings
    Automated Threat Identification00 Ratings8.5192 Ratings
    Zero Trust Security
    Comparison of Zero Trust Security features of Cisco Secure Network Analytics and Zscaler Internet Access
    Feature
    Cisco Secure Network Analytics
    -
    Ratings
    Zscaler Internet Access
    8.9
    262 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Continuous Verification00 Ratings8.7245 Ratings
    Secure Web Gateways00 Ratings9.0236 Ratings
    Network Flow Control00 Ratings8.1217 Ratings
    Network Traffic Analysis00 Ratings8.8219 Ratings
    Segmentation Leveraging00 Ratings8.6194 Ratings
    Admin Access Control00 Ratings9.1230 Ratings
    Network Data Encryption00 Ratings8.8207 Ratings
    Network Topology Mapping00 Ratings10.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Forescout Vistaro Platform
    Score6.6 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.5
    (14 ratings)
    9.0
    (295 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.4
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    8.8
    (279 ratings)
    Availability
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.5
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.9
    (2 ratings)
    7.1
    (10 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.4
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Secure Network AnalyticsZscaler Internet Access
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Few products operate off the Netflow or RAP/SPAN traffic versus the endpoint. Of those products, many operate from the aggregate traffic of uplinks/downlinks, whereas Secure Network Analytics focuses on viewing all traffic to give per-endpoint comprehensive data analytics. SNA is a great product for network visibility and detection, and to preserve that focus, other options such as remediation or quarantined are deferred to other products in the security ecosystem. SNA uses Machine Learning models to determine traffic behavioral compliance, which is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it mitigates zero day attacks changing traffic patterns, but conversely, it requires training to know acceptable traffic patterns. Unfortunately, many adopters of SNA do not spend the time giving it the user input and so the ML models never gets the correct weights and parameters to work from.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    I feel the product is very good to set up basic standards and go beyond that in many aspects. However, due to being sometimes too simple, it limits the ability to do some other complex changes. Having the ability to do both would be ideal for some, if not all, of the products within Zscaler Internet Access. A simple setup to have it stand-up, and more advanced settings for those more experienced.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • A silent tool.
    • A great way to get visibility of all the conversations of the network.
    • Easy to find out the internal and the external threats.
    • Easy to track performance.
    • Network monitoring is very easy to understand and control.
    • Attacks can be easily detected along with encrypted traffic.
    • Historic records of the attack and reports make it even better.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    • Provides a secure VPN connection point for endpoint connectivity.
    • Provides the VPN connectivity in a fast and reliable connection state.
    • Very dependable, once connected the connection stays up and there's no fuss.
    • Very good at letting you know when you are not authenticated.
    • Very easy to authenticate and regain access when your session times out.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Some of the jobs can be difficult to setup until you know how they were designed
    • Unless coupled with other Cisco products, you may not get all of the information you would like to have
    • If you have a network that already has many issues it may take a lot of time to see the value in the product; it would take time to weed everything which this product will detect for you to use it to find that needle in the haystack
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    • ZS CLI support to turn off ZIA and ZDX service specifically on mac.
    • Better visibility into failed posture devices, including a timeline and the reason the posture failed (This is about the Zscaler mobile portal: Enrolled devices --> Failed posture devices).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    Cisco Secure Network Analytics is a fantastic tool, but does require some setup and upkeep which may turn off smaller IT Security teams. However, once all the flows are set up and the product is functioning with the proper rules, the insight into your network is fantastic. For us, the product has a significant ROI and will be a product we keep up on.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    While Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) delivers critical value in cloud security and RBI compliance, I rate renewal likelihood 7/10 due to evolving needs versus platform limitations. Below is my rationale:
    Key Gaps:
    1. Advanced Threat Costs:
    ZIA’s add-ons (e.g., Advanced DLP, Sandboxing) incur 35%+ cost premiums – straining budgets as transaction volumes (UPI/iMobile) grow 50% YoY.
    2. API Banking Scalability:
    ZIA’s API rate limits throttle real-time policy sync during UPI peaks (10K+ TPS), forcing workarounds for finacle integrations.
    3. RBI Future-Proofing:
    Limited native support for upcoming digital rupee (CBDC) security rules requires custom development, increasing compliance overhead.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    Strong and complete tool which gives comprehensive methods to discover cyber security incidents and prevent data leakage. In case of common use of Cisco StealthWatch and Cisco ISE, you will receive [the] ability [to] not just discover cyber security incidents but also dynamically respond to them. This makes StealthWatch one of most valuable products through[out] [the] whole Cisco Security product portfolio.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    Getting started was pretty straightforward. We can tell the product is way more robust than we are using it. It started as a replacement for previous DNS-blocking content filtering, but we're exploring how this will add value with an upcoming DLP redesign and with traffic optimization at some of our remote sites with severe bandwidth limits.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    I would rate Cisco Secure Network Analytics’ availability as 8 out of 10. The platform is highly stable and reliable, with users reporting minimal downtime and consistent performance once the system is properly deployed and configured.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Zscaler
    There are often performance issues reported
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Overall winner because it exceeds our expectations by answering all our requirements and at the same time empowers our operations thru other built-in capabilities it has. Visibility is a key to security operations and Cisco StealthWatch really gives us a magnifying glass to check all logs in the network for threat intelligence and threat hunting.
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    Zscaler's ZIA support is quick and knowledgable. They respond within 1-2 hours of you submitting your ticket. They are very thorough and are typically ready to jump on a live troubleshooting session. Our ZIA platform and how we use is it unique so at times tickets can be open for weeks but we alway get quality support compared to other unrelated product support in our enterprise
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    Implementation of the product can be tedious, especially fine tuning its rules to customize it to your environment. However, after that is done, CSNA is a very useful and flexible product that would enhance the security posture of any corporate network.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    good the engineer give excellent support and eplanation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    I wasn't involved in the decision-making when it happened. It was a couple of years ago, but I can't think of the vendor's name. They used to be here at Cisco Live. But it was another NetFlow vendor, but they were strictly NetFlow and all they did was just a net flow and the Secure Network Analytics has like some of the security anomaly detection stuff built into it. And that was kind of a deciding factor of wanting more of the security focus of the net flow. The net flow was a bonus, but the security stuff was what we were looking for.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    The overall user community and scope of supportability outweighed the others on our short list. Netskope was a close second, but the risk, though small, was greater than that of bringing Zscaler aboard. We were looking for a mature, well-supported, highly functional, and fine-grained solution that met all our user and information security requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • It is a little pricey - in my organization, with budget cuts, I eventually had to replace it with an open source product (NTOP). While it works well for visibility, it simply isn't the same. If you can afford it, don't bother looking anywhere else - just get it.
    • Being able to detect, pivot out, and remmediate from one console was awesome.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Zscaler
    • I would say it has a very good ROI, as whenever someone can't access something, they submit a ticket to our network engineer, and within minutes, the site is safely added to ZIA with best-practice configurations. After seeing a little of the UI from the Zenith event, it seems very user-friendly to control these policies.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Zscaler Internet Access Screenshots

    Screenshot of an overview of Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA), a cloud native security service edge (SSE) solution that builds on a decade of secure web gateway leadership. Offered as a scalable SaaS platform through Zscaler's security cloud, it replaces legacy network security solutions, preventing advanced attacks and data loss with a comprehensive zero trust approach. ZIA is integrated into the Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange™ to provide superior defense-in-depth, secure connectivity, end user experience, and administrative visibility and control.