Item: Cisco Firepower 1000 Series
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In our company we are using the Cisco Firepower 1120 as Firewall between our locations and connected companies.
To maintain a very high security standard we need to secure any long range connection.
We have a multi-level Firewall-System and use devices from different manufacturers to provide a maximum of security against attacks, not only from external attackers but even if they manage to access our network physically and start an attack from the inside.

Pros and Cons

Very stable, till now no hardware defects or bigger software problems
Good overview and easy to understand dashboard
The log is very easy to configure to get the information needed
The design of the dashboard (mainly the themes) is pretty good

The speed - the website can be quite laggy
The search - a lot of sections to configure and sometimes hard to understand
The compatibility - This is a general Cisco-"Thing" - all is made to work perfect with other Cisco devices, but it is a bit more complicated with other solutions. Nothing serious, but improvable.

Return on Investment

We have a very high ROI, but those are devices from the NFR-program
They are generally stable and therefore reliable; We didn't experience any downtimes yet, except those for planned maintenance
The configuration can be quite difficult; We have some minor problems from time to time. Especially if a colleague is trying to reach a destination that should be reachable. The Firepower had a slight misconfiguration, which was hard to find.
Again reliability as a pro or positive effect. It may not be the fastest, but for us it seems everything is working as planned and that over years. We had multiple devices with much more problems in less time.

Simplified Administration

We are using those in a network of almost a dozen devices. We do not use the simplified administration or better can not use it.

Performance

As stated, the Firepower is reliable, has a good speed and performance and so on. I can lightheartedly recommend the devices. On the other hand: It is no secret, that there are more powerful or more flexible solutions. In most cases those solutions cost the same and have other flaws instead or are more expensive. A thorough check is needed to find the best solution for your company.

Support Rating

We didn't need support for this device yet.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Firepower 2100 Series and Fortinet FortiGate

We use both devices for different purposes. Both have their benefits, which we try to bring to best use in our environment.
This makes it hard to compare them. All I can say for sure is, that they work quite well as a team, each leveling out the others flaws.

Other Software Used

baramundi Management Suite, SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM), mRemoteNG, PRTG Network Monitor, Veritas Backup Exec

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco Firepower 1000 Series delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Firepower 1000 Series's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Firepower 1000 Series live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Cisco Firepower 1000 Series go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Firepower 1000 Series again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

I think it is well suited for smaller companies or (as in our case) extension to a central system with higher performance.
My personal guess is, that it can be quite annoying with those delays in bigger environments, when 20 or more devices needed to be managed.

From the point of security, support and updates it works quite good and seem to have no downsides.

Stable workhorse for a secure environment

Software Version

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Firepower 1000 Series