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Cisco Secure Web Appliance vs. LevelBlue USM Anywhere

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Secure Web Appliance

    Score8 out of 10
    N/ACisco Secure Web Appliance (formerly Cisco Web Security Appliance [WSA]), powered by Cisco Talos, protects by automatically blocking risky sites and testing unknown sites before allowing users to link to them, helping with compliance. It is available models S690, S390, and S190.N/A

    LevelBlue USM Anywhere

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AThe LevelBlue USM Anywhere XDR platform (replacing the former AlienVault USM) delivers threat detection, incident response, and compliance management.

    $1,075

    per month

    Pricing
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceLevelBlue USM Anywhere
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Essentials
    $1,075
    per month
    Standard
    $1,695
    per month
    Premium
    $2,595
    per month
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceLevelBlue USM Anywhere
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoYes
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceLevelBlue USM Anywhere
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    LevelBlue
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    7 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    86%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceLevelBlue USM Anywhere
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    Score8.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Forcepoint SWG
    Score8 out of 10
    InsightIDR
    Score8.6 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway
    Score8 out of 10
    Microsoft Defender XDR
    Score8.7 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceLevelBlue USM Anywhere
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.8
    (9 ratings)
    9.8
    (390 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.2
    (18 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    6.7
    (34 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (3 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    7.3
    (25 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.3
    (6 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (38 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.0
    (3 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (3 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.6
    (3 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    8.2
    (3 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceLevelBlue USM Anywhere
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    We have both scenarios where we can describe that. For example, in the HQ, where we have about 3,000 users, Cisco IronPort Web Security Appliance is the ideal solution, because we can consolidate all the Internet access, policies, rules, etc. in the same box. However, if you have small offices with a few users, it's hard to justify one big and expensive box that could cost more than the whole office infrastructure.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    At this point I'm saying a 4. While the marketing material make it appear to be easy to use and it was relatively easy to set up, as previously mentioned, each event description is based upon the individual asset making it nearly impossible for the administrator to be a SME for each asset. For example, if one of the assets reporting is a router, the administrator monitoring alerts would need to know what the various events are that can be triggered as an event for the particular router; however, if the asset is a workstation, the administrator would need to know the various events that are triggered for workstations.
    Incentivized
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    Pros
    Cisco
    • SMA gave us central control over multiple servers, simplifying management.
    • Performance of the Appliance VM exceeded that of our old physical appliance-based solution.
    • Convenient licensing for virtualized environments that allows easy scaling.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    • AlienVault USM is simple and easy to deploy. Sensors can be deployed in as little as 15 minutes through the setup wizard.
    • The USM UI is easy to understand. I've trained multiple analysts who are able to perform their duties on their first day, in part because of USM Anywhere's ease of use.
    • Top-notch built-in compliance templates and reporting features.
    Incentivized
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    Cons
    Cisco
    • I think that the interface could need updates to adapt it to a much more current system, achieve quick access to necessary tools and adapt the platform to a much more customizable and comfortable system to work with.
    • It is undoubtedly a platform that is worth having, however, the license costs could be better adjusted to small businesses so that it can be accessed more easily.
    • It could be a bit complex to use, the use of codes is quite extensive, it could be adjusted to something much more practical but just as efficient.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    • Personally, I've wished I could purchase a service that would configure AV for my environment. I get a lot of traffic on a daily basis and I almost need to hire an analyst that just works on AV.
    • Some of the filters when looking for a specific alert aren't that easy to use.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    The centralized logging and retention for PCI compliance was our main driver, and it is meeting that need. Otherwise there has been enough frustration with the lack of documentation and the need to customize through the CLI that I would be open to alternatives.
    Incentivized
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    Usability
    Cisco
    Because it's one of those products you almost don't realize it exists from the end user. From the administrator perspective, you can do everything on its web interface and it's very intuitive to manage, once you know the concepts behind identities, acls, etc. Also, once you build the control structure, I mean, you link 'local' groups with your own Active Directory groups, as we did here, you don't need to be managing those things on the appliance itself.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    Once you are able to navigate the different panels, finding what you need is quite easily. Before getting used it it can be a bit of challenge . Each panel is quite well laid out and the filtering search capabilities are quite strong.
    Incentivized
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    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    We do have issues with maintenance on the AlienVault USM as the disk fills up from time to time with other data sources. Sources for scanning logs and net flow data isn't calculated in regular disk maintenance and can easily fill up our disk if we do not keep an eye on it with some custom Nagios plugins. The system does properly trim logging data from logging sources properly.
    Incentivized
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    Performance
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    With the latest release of AlienVault USM overall performance has not been an issue. We have noticed single source events per second does not scale well with the overall system. 2,000eps on a vmware system with a single source produces delays of up to an hour for us. Pages, reporting and even raw log searches are rather quick though.
    Incentivized
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    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Our experience with Cisco's support was terrible. Other than the fact that they don't respond to service-related emails with urgency, they also keep on changing the policies that affected us. Recently, they came up with a new look for the same software, which was insanely slow. Renewal of keys for the old interface took months. Overall, the support was not very friendly from the users' point of view.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    The support we received from alienvault was excellent. They went above and beyond in making sure everything was working as it needed to be. They REALLY want their product implementation to be a success and our security goals be achieved. They are like a member of our security team.
    Incentivized
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    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    I did not have any experience with "in person" training directly. The free online classes offered for a half a day are based on the actual training offered. These little teasers are very good and well worth your time to learn a few quick and dirty ways of getting more information from your SIEM
    Incentivized
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    Online Training
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    It was very well organized and helpful in using the product to the fullest extent. The instructor allowed time for folks who were involved with managed services to receive tuning tips in order to better support their customers. In addition, the course materials were automatically updated when the new version came out.
    Incentivized
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    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    AlienVault USM was a very simple to implement and get up and running. We started with a trial version and had that up and going within an hour of receiving email instructions from the sales engineer. We never had to contact support to get the system up and going. It was extremely easy to convert over to a full license once we started with a paid version.
    Incentivized
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    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    At home I have a McAfee service that does similar tasks and helps manage the users of my internet. McAfee seems more user friendly and easier to set exceptions.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    Splunk's ES is a paid add-on on top of an already pricey product. Finding a MSSP that supports Splunk and isn't a 6 figure annual commitment seems unlikely. LogRhythm did not have a cloud-based solution when we were considering SIEMs. Fantastic product though and have a good MSSP base. Devo did not have a MSSP partner base when we looked. Their product is fantastic too. AlienVault USM has good partners to choose from as well as an affordable cloud model, that's why we chose it.
    Incentivized
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    Scalability
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    LevelBlue
    The AlienVault USM is not very scalable. Some scalability can be achieved by installing additional sensors, but this only offers 500eps per sensor and is still overall limited by the installation type of VM or physical. We have also noticed the EPS (events per second) is rated overall and not towards a single source. A single source on a very healthy VMware partition tops out at 2,000eps for us, no matter how we configure it. Maybe this is a problem of the 5.2 release?
    Incentivized
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    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Security! Security! Security! We are financial company that work with very sensitive information. A lot of unsafe traffic was blocked on the Cisco IronPort WSA over years of using it. We did not earn on it but absolutely sure that we did not lose 'gazillion' of dollars being infected or scammed.
    • Easy to configure and use, no need to teach new personnel how work with this product (hopefully saving time = saving money).
    • Unfortunately the price of license subscription made financial managers push IT dept. to look for something cheaper.
    Incentivized
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    LevelBlue
    • Once you hit the 150 asset mark, you have to jump to their unlimited license. There is no middle ground. We were only 10 or so assets above the 150 so we had to chose to either not monitor those assets or pay the price of the upgrade.
    • AlienVault brings all the information to one place which makes it much quicker to track down problems.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots