Item: Cisco Secure Firewall
Rating: 9
Author: Michal Navorka

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Secure Firewall

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

As main firewalls at Branches and DCs and also for VPNs.
We are using it for security control, Web filtering, IPS and also malware protection.
We are using multiple platforms from 1010s, series 1000, series 3000 and also virtual FTDs and ASAvs. We also use in convergence with AnyConnect VPN.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Access control
Layer 7 FW
Anyconnect VPN
Snort/IPS

Cons

Management - FMC
Licensing

Return on Investment

Helping achieve compliance
Business continuity

Security and Performance

IPS protection to protect systems which are exposed to the internet. Web filtering helping to achieve level of compliance with limiting access to the internet.

Support Rating

Product is in a pretty good shape and much more mature than in previous versions. Code quality is good and TAC is very helpful. From time to time something happens but still its software so in general it's acceptable.

Cisco Security Ecosystem

VPN is used heavily in our org. Logging also due to the compliance level where we need to store logs. Analytics we are using for TSHOOT and performance statistics.

Alternatives Considered

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) Software

Well FWs are branch security things and major things so really not much similar device at Cisco portfolio.

Key Insights

Do you think Cisco Secure Firewall delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Secure Firewall's feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Secure Firewall live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Secure Firewall again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN

Likelihood to Recommend

Larger companies which needs security compliance across the organization. Where is needed one single pane of glass for management.