Umbrella Review - Keeping the Rain Out of Your Network.
Updated December 10, 2019
Umbrella Review - Keeping the Rain Out of Your Network.
Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Umbrella
First - Cisco Umbrella used to be called OpenDNS. Cisco bought them. And of course had to rename it - especially since it had OPEN in the name. LOL! I work as the director of IT for a mid sized architectural firm. The architects were used to going about anywhere they wanted on the web and when I started here I knew I had to find a way to "protect" them without being too pushy. OpenDNS, aka Umbrella has been a lifesaver. Using their selection list I was able to whittle down the content available to my users while still having the ability to customize and whitelist sites they needed to have access to. This product - in case you don't know - filters traffic at the DNS level. They have whitelist/blacklist DNS entries and for the most part it is totally transparent and extremely fast.
- Filters content at the DNS level. Makes it a little harder for the sneaky ones to make it through.
- Since this is at the DNS level, using their DNS servers (as a forwarder to your local DNS) it is extremely fast. Transparent.
- Always being updated. Not dependent on "definitions" or algorithms - a site is either blacklisted or whitelisted.
- Easy to implement, apply, maintain
- Reporting is a bit convoluted. I'd like it to be easier to sort out.
- I know many are looking for ROI numbers - I think this product (and other security products) you have to look at the potential risk. Even with the "best" users bad stuff is going to happen.
- Another risk factor, one that I took seriously, was the potential for company liability by bad users accessing objectionable sites and good users being exposed to that - with potential liability issues. By utilizing the filtering capabilities this helps lessen this risk.
I honestly have not compared Umbrella to other products. I know there are countless web content monitoring/filtering solutions out there but most of them require additional hardware, overhead, setup, etc. I didn't even consider them. To me it just makes more sense to filter at the DNS level. It is more unobtrusive and easier to accomplish. Not having to analyze network traffic beyond an IP address.
Do you think Cisco Umbrella delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with Cisco Umbrella's feature set?
Yes
Did Cisco Umbrella live up to sales and marketing promises?
Yes
Did implementation of Cisco Umbrella go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy Cisco Umbrella again?
Yes