Cisco now offers OpenDNS Umbrella Web Filtering. Cisco acquired OpenDNS in August 2015, and rebranded the product as Cisco Umbrella.
N/A
Zscaler Internet Access
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Zscaler Internet Access™ (ZIA) is a secure web gateway (SWG), delivering cloud native cyberthreat protection and zero trust access to the internet and SaaS apps.
Auto SIG Tunnels is a feature that helps in provisioning tunnels automatically using Cisco Umbrella APIs and so this is one win for choosing Cisco Umbrella over others. With Cisco SD-WAN viptela, the Cisco Umbrella stacks up well because its the same vendor so less …
Initially when we researched Cisco Umbrella we felt that Zscaler came out ahead. Umbrella has made huge improvements since then that we are planning to evaluate again.
Zscaler Internet Access (ZIA) gives us better and full visibility to websites, URL, requests etc that we didn't get with Cisco Umbrella. We could block things by domain name, but seeing subdirectories and subdomains for that, we didn't have that ability. It's probably there, …
We evaluated Zscaler Internet Access as more attractive on financial side than competitors we evaluated and easier to setup and to use. The interaction with vendor and its partners was also top-notch.
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are broad-spectrum internet security solutions. Zscaler Internet Access unifies multiple security functions, such as web filters, firewalls, and file sandboxing into a single cloud-based product. Cisco Umbrella used to be limited to DNS-level inspection but has recently expanded its feature set to be similar to Zscaler.
On TrustRadius, both products are used heavily by enterprise-level organizations, likely due to the attractiveness of single-product security solutions for large businesses with complex security needs.
Features
Although both Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access provide similar levels of protection, they each have a few standout benefits.
Administrators using Zscaler Internet Access appreciate that the platform is relatively simple to implement and keep updated. Its cloud-based abstraction also allows users to do away with complicated local security configurations. End-users generally report minimal delays to web access. The product’s SSO capability helps keep users safe without having to log in to the service repeatedly.
Cisco Umbrella’s users appreciate that the service is lightweight, easy to implement, and comes with useful policy configurations out-of-the-box. It provides detailed statistics to help administrators understand user behavior and threat patterns, and adjust their policy appropriately. Cisco Umbrella’s DNS-level filtering is fast and responsive; users report it acts almost invisibly. It also integrates well with other web security products, especially those offered by Cisco.
Limitations
Both solutions provide web security and filtering for their customers, but each also has limitations to consider before purchasing.
Many users find Cisco Umbrella’s statistics and reporting feature to be dense and difficult to parse. Some users wish for quality-of-life improvements, such as the ability to create policy rules (e.g. blacklisting a website) directly from reports. Although the service can integrate with MS Active Directory, many administrators found the integration process difficult, a problem that was compounded by a lack of sufficient training and FAQ material.
On the other hand, reviewers on TrustRadius report that Zscaler Internet Access can be frustrating to work with in general. Administrators often comment on the poor user design when trying to use the management dashboard. The web blocking options may be too inflexible for some companies. This requires administrators to abandon the platform’s category and behavior-based blacklist capability and resort purely to whitelisting approved websites. Although Zscaler Internet Access provides detailed logging, the tools to filter those logs can be troublesome to use. The report generation options also don’t provide enough customization options for some users.
Pricing
Both Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access use a tiered, subscription-based pricing structure and do not disclose pricing information on their website. Quotes are available from the vendor upon request.
Cisco Umbrella’s feature set changes significantly between its three tiers. The DNS Security Essentials tier offers primarily DNS-based filtering and security. The DNS Security Advantage tier adds features like SSL decryption and threat intelligence tools. The Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Essentials tier adds the complete set of security features, including file sandboxing, cloud access security broker (CASB), and firewall capabilities. Complete pricing information is available via a quote from Cisco.
Zscaler Internet Access also offers three tiered plans. The Professional Edition offers security features such as web filtering, malware protection, and file sandboxing. The Business Edition adds features like SSL inspection, bandwidth control, and cloud data loss prevention. The Transformation Edition adds extra sandboxing features, more firewall options, and CASB functionality. Complete pricing information is available via a quote from Zscaler.
Features
Cisco Umbrella
Zscaler Internet Access
Identity Management
Comparison of Identity Management features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Umbrella
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
5.6
2 Ratings
46% below category average
Multi-Factor Authentication
00 Ratings
5.62 Ratings
Endpoint Security
Comparison of Endpoint Security features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Umbrella
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
9.6
2 Ratings
3% above category average
Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR)
00 Ratings
9.62 Ratings
Threat Intelligence
Comparison of Threat Intelligence features of Product A and Product B
Cisco Umbrella
-
Ratings
Zscaler Internet Access
9.5
5 Ratings
7% above category average
Network Analytics
00 Ratings
9.75 Ratings
Threat Recognition
00 Ratings
9.55 Ratings
Vulnerability Classification
00 Ratings
9.45 Ratings
Automated Alerts and Reporting
00 Ratings
9.55 Ratings
Threat Analysis
00 Ratings
9.65 Ratings
Threat Intelligence Reporting
00 Ratings
9.65 Ratings
Automated Threat Identification
00 Ratings
9.25 Ratings
Zero Trust Security
Comparison of Zero Trust Security features of Product A and Product B
So the well-suited product, it's actually in two areas. One I already touched base on earlier which is the ability to have a federal model where we have the flexibility to set high-level policies from a group perspective while giving the independence of the business unit to operate and model the system to meet their needs. The second one, which is very powerful, especially in the last few years, is the remote workers. I'm able to protect and extend that edge of my security to their endpoint regardless if they are a Cisco Live or if they are at a bar or on a train basically anywhere. So as a chemical company, we have a lot of OT or ICS industrial control systems, which are highly regulated and highly scrutinized and usually require a physical presence while Cisco umbrella is mostly a cloud native type of product. So it doesn't fit well in that environment, which is detached from the internet doing well.
Zscaler Internet Access is an internet tunnel that pairs with the network adapter to secure traffic between servers and workstations. It can refresh policies automatically and log intrusions but does not broadcast intrusions. Cloud-based Zscaler Internet Access is easy to deploy and scale, with no hardware or software needed. In a hybrid model, Zscaler Internet Access performs some security functions on-premises and others in the cloud, allowing organizations to keep infrastructure. There is a slight learning curve from VPN and appliance architecture to this paradigm.
Umbrella Virtual Appliances have been buggy in resolving local domain hosts.
Integration between other Cisco and Meraki products is complicated.
Reporting is not always accurate; for example, if you configure a Meraki access point to use an Umbrella Virtual Appliance, you lose device reporting. All reporting shows up under the AP's IP.
My personal opinion about Zscaler is their idea is that all the services are online and are moving to the cloud but the truth is some of them have to stay on-premise and employees still need to work from an office. Zscaler simply doesn't have any on-premise solutions like an NGFW to provide a complete package. We are supporting Fortinet NGFW for our on-premise solution.
As mentioned earlier Zscaler being hosted online we don't get the full flexibility of managing our firewalls. Although it's a good thing we keep running into problems like when we want to allow list a service from a specific source IP Zscaler cannot provide a static IP for that. They route traffic through multiple IP addresses and the IP's keep changing every 15-20 minutes. So you cannot allow list a specific IP on the receiving end. The only way to move forward would be to allow an entire range of IP's which opens a security loophole on the receiving end.
For every small thing we have to keep opening a ticket with Zscaler. Their response rate is fast but still in a fast-moving world it's not fast enough. Especially since we need to get approval from our change control to get something done and then again we have to raise a ticket to get something done from the Zscaler side.
First off I never give anything a "10" unless it's perfect. LOL - I grade on the curve. I think OpenDNS/Umbrella is a very good product. I think that fact that Cisco absorbed them is one of the proofs of that. I have used the product back when it was free for companies our size. I have not always appreciated the cost - but in the post pandemic cyber chaos, I believe the cost benefit ratio is still very high. I have honestly not looked at other products because Umbrella continues to work to my satisfaction. I consider Umbrella to be one of the key layers in my cyber security strategy.
Better features and easy to manage system with great customer support and overall usability is great as it works for hybrid environment with ease as it is having features for on prem users as wells as cloud users with great customer support and great team of trained engineers to support our opeartions.
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.
Cisco umbrella services in the cloud are always available. However, the weakness is the VM installed in the data center that are the first resolvers. If the VMs become unavailable for any reason or the vSphere goes down, then all DNS is affected
our experience with cisco products has always been awesome and same is the case with cisco umbrella .Under umbrella cisco provides flexible and scalable software solution to use across different dept and sites . These softwares are very user friendly ,pages load quickly as these applications are designed for minimum latency and reports are also provided quickely
We have not had a chance to use Cisco support frequently, but when we needed to troubleshoot some issues that we were having with the agent installation, the support was very responsive and the solution that they offered worked. The only reason I give it one less point is that the turnaround time for non-critical issues is very long.
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.
Quite easy to understand training modules prepared by knowledgeable trainers. Training modules have included all the desired features of these softwares and the content delivery is very good from the respective module trainers and it explains in details the features and apart from that further training material support is also provided if needed.
At the time we were forced to move from Cloud Web Security to Cisco Umbrella, Cisco Umbrella was far from being a direct replacement. It was frustrating and difficult to migrate due to the lack of functionality. This has since been addressed, however we now have legacy rulesets that were built as bandaids that cannot be removed. Hopefully the migration to Secure Access will address this.
Different products in different spaces. The Z3 was more of a VPN endpoint so that users didn't have to worry about a client. If they are at home, they are on their corporate network and able to access resources. Cisco Umbrella can be used then to serve corporate DNS across the VPN tunnel to the Z3 device and extend the capabilities of Cisco Umbrella.
Zscaler Intenet Access proved to be superior and the difference for us was the speed of policy delivery since your policy is applied in a web console and is effective in a matter of seconds. Another point to congratulate the solution is its compatibility with different platforms (macOS, Linux, Windows, Android, and iOS).
Cisco umbrella provides fleaxible and scalable software solutions which are easy deploy across multiple departments and sites wherever needed and this softwares are very easy to use and provides the best interface along with cisco support for other devices apart from cisco infrastructure but still there is scope for improvement on the inclusion of latest features
Cisco Umbrella has been an excellent investment for us. The extra protection it provides in a very simple way has been well worth the costs.
Cisco Umbrella is very easy to setup and manage and can do most of the things we need with little daily interaction so we are free to work on other systems that need more attention.
Utilizing the Cisco Umbrella reporting features, we can determine what systems might need additional attention. If we see systems attempting certain types of access, we quickly know there is likely something on the device that probably needs removed.
Specific Cisco Umbrella reports can help us determine if we need to do user education and develop cyber habits.
