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Cisco Secure Web Appliance vs. WatchGuard DNSWatchGO

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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

    WatchGuard DNSWatchGO

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/AWatchGuard DNSWatchGO provides DNS-level protection and content filtering that keeps the user's business safe from phishing, ransomware, and other attacks even when a user is outside of the network, without requiring a VPN.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceWatchGuard DNSWatchGO
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceWatchGuard DNSWatchGO
    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
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceWatchGuard DNSWatchGO
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    Forcepoint SWG
    Score8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    Enterprises
    Skyhigh Secure Web Gateway
    Score8 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceWatchGuard DNSWatchGO
    Likelihood to Recommend
    6.8
    (9 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Secure Web ApplianceWatchGuard DNSWatchGO
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    While DNSWatchgo offers the same categories as Application Control offers on the Watchguard firewalls, the WebBlocker categories are not offered. This is really a disappointment and Watchgurad should really consider adding the extra WebBlocker categories to DMSWatchGo. In my opinion, reporting in DNSWatchGo is minimal to say the least and could use drastic additions. as it is today it does offer very little info to the admins. The identification of registered clients is flawed. It seems that the same clients are registered multiple times on the management platform, thus unnecessarily consuming licenses. In my experience, it is really annoying to have to remove the duplicate clients every time again and again. On the positive side, when one already has Watchguard firewalls seting up DNSWatchGo is really easy, as it shares the same categories with Watchguard firewall Application Control. So easily one can almost the firewall functionality on laptops. And we say almost, because DNSWatchGo is missing the WebBlocker categories / blocking capabilities to be considered a full firewall replacement.
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    • protect from phishing, ransomware
    • content filtering
    • no vpn needed
    • cloud based
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    • While DNSWatchgo offers the same categories as Application Control offers on the Watchguard firewalls, the WebBlocker categories are not offered.
    • Reporting is minimal and could use massive upgrades.
    • The identification of registered clients is flawed. It seems that the same clients are registered multiple times on the management platform, thus unnecessarily consuming licenses.
    Incentivized
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    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    WatchGuard Technologies
    We really need an extra layer of protection for our laptops. Choosing the DNSWatchGo makes sense as we have Watchguard firewall. If we had another brand of firewalls we would probably use anther product instead!
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    No answers on this topic
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    At the time we were looking for a DNS based protection solution we had also tried "Blue Shield Umbrella". Both programs had similar behavior, but the main reason we eventually decided to go with DNSWatchGo was the fact the we have WatchGurd firewalls. So deploying DNSWatchGo was easy as we just copied the Application Control settings from our firewalls to the DNSWatchGo setup. Also Watchguard firewalls already have the DNSWatch service for the PCs that are connected to them while inside the company network, so it makes sense to equip them with the same shield while outside the company network.
    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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    WatchGuard Technologies
    • easy to mange
    • you can have control over external pc or cellphone
    Incentivized
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