Likelihood to Recommend When it comes to security on the edge of your network (downstream) Cisco's IOS security features provide pretty much everything you need when it comes to securing your network, network devices, and access. I would absolutely recommend Cisco switches due to many reasons, but a big reason is security.
Read full review It is easy to use with sufficient documentation on how to use the tools for end users or newbies. Experienced testers will find it easy to customise and configure the test cases. Just wished that I could have taken up a course on using this tool in my study days so that I could had explored more and improved my familiarity with the tool, unlike when working where access and time to explore the other features of the tool is limited
Read full review Pros Authentication. Access lists. Port security. Read full review Scanning our network for new or existing vulnerable systems. Automation of manual tests and exploits to allow what used to be days of effort to be squeezed into hours. Metasploit has become an integral part in our validation of new systems before their inclusion in our production network. Read full review Cons Cisco could provide an initial set up script for those are not used to the CLI (Command Line Interface). With that initial script, people could easily deploy the security features instead of having to learn how to use the commands. The web interface that Cisco provides with the routers, although it’s useful to set up the security features, it could also have some sort of tutorials to help people understand the main concepts of iOS security. You have to license iOS security separately from the main OS. For that reason, sometimes it tends to be a little expensive if you have a small business. Read full review Have encountered issues with updating especially after moving from BackTrack to Kali. Sometimes it gets a little buggy, but that's a rare occurrence. Read full review Support Rating Cisco has the best Support team that gives us 24/7 support as we need. Cisco has huge detailed documentation for design, implementation, and troubleshooting all areas of the IOS security. There are many communities discussing all Cisco devices and solutions for studying groups and for customers to share their stories, technical problem and solutions.
Read full review We don't use it.
Read full review Alternatives Considered I also like HP Procurve. It is my choice when the customer cannot afford Cisco. Cisco is better all round but HP is the only other [product] I will use if I have a choice.
Read full review Metasploit is an all around good suite of tools to test and validate potential vulnerabilites. Other tools have bits and pecies such as
Nmap , Nessus,
Burp Suite , etc. but Metasploit can function in the same way but more.
Read full review Return on Investment Cisco iOS security helped our business deploy a relatively safe solution for a small amount of money. If you don’t have enough budget to invest in a robust and expensive firewall solution, you can safely use Cisco iOS security to protect your branch or remote office without compromise your network. Because Cisco iOS security uses a simple command-line based interface, you can deploy standardized scripts and keep the operational costs low. Read full review If you prevent an attack you will save a lot of money. There is a free version that has a lot of useful exploits. You can run it in an open source OS. Read full review ScreenShots