Cisco Umbrella vs Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

• Cisco Umbrella protects our devices and users from malicious sites of all kinds.
• Cisco Umbrella allows us to add additional web site types we may want to block for specific users.
• Cisco Umbrella keeps the list of sites blocked current by utilizing data from their entire security platform.

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• The PA handles VPN connectivity without missing a beat. We have multiple VPN tunnels in use for redundancy to cloud-based services.
• The PA has great functionality in supporting failover internet connections, again with the ability to have multiple paths out to our cloud-based services.
• The PA is updated on the regular with various security updates, we are not concerned with the firewall's ability to see what packets are really flowing across the network. Being able to see beyond just IP and port requests lets you know things are locked down better than traditional firewalls.
• It is a great overall kit, with URL filtering and other services that fill in the gaps between other solutions without breaking the bank.

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• Keeping up to date on known malicious sites and blocking those is difficult for all vendors, but this could always be improved upon.
• A more detailed descriptions of what is included the Security Categories would be useful. Generic descriptions are provided. For example, state lottery sites could be detailed in the description of the Gambling category.

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• Our specific model is a bit slow and outdated and takes up to 10 minutes to commit a configuration change.
• Nested security rules would be helpful instead of a linear approach. But rule creation in general is very simple.
• Documentation gives a very straight forward answer to some items but is very vague in others.
• Support could be a little better. An issue we had a tech was insistent it was the "other guy" and it ended up being the very latest PAN OS upgrade.

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• On the positive side, the product does help block known bad sites, resulting in less time that technicians spend cleaning infections.
• On the negative side, the problem that causes Windows to incorrectly report no Internet access has taken a lot of time for many technicians.
• Reporting features for individual clients help us more efficiently provide browsing reports when needed.

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• Overall, even though the device is very expensive (both hardware and licensing), the product does produce a decent ROI, given that one (or HA pair) of devices can do so many things, such as anti-virus, anti-malware, URL filtering, SSL decryption, SSL VPN, routing, etc.
• There will definitely be sticker shock when you're renewal comes up annually (or after 3 years), so be sure to look very carefully at the recurring costs of this product, with respect to licensing and hardware/software maintenance.

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