

Cisco Secure Email and Microsoft Exchange Online Protection compete in the email security market. Cisco appears to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive security features, although Microsoft excels in integration with its own suite of products.
Features: Cisco Secure Email offers advanced malware and spam filtering, threat blocking, and Active Directory integration. It also provides robust email security without affecting network performance. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection integrates seamlessly with Microsoft services, highlighting anti-phishing and anti-malware capabilities, though it may lack Cisco’s advanced segmentation options.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email users find configuration complex and costly, lacking streamlined cloud integrations and improved spam identification. Microsoft EOP users criticize high pricing and the necessity for manual settings configuration, wishing for more automation and policy granularity.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Secure Email offers flexible deployment options, though the complexity poses integration challenges. Customer service receives mixed feedback. Microsoft EOP, being cloud-based, balances deployment simplicity with integration ease for Microsoft users. Its technical support is effective but adapting to evolving interfaces can be challenging.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Email is priced higher, attracting users through its advanced features and strong ROI in threat mitigation. Microsoft EOP’s competitive pricing, especially when bundled with other Microsoft services, appeals to budget-conscious businesses despite fewer features compared to Cisco.
Cisco's tech support can be hit or miss, depending on the engineer you get.
The support is pretty decent, with a rating of eight out of ten.
Microsoft offers excellent 24/7 support.
My team is able to get the help they need when necessary.
The on-premises hardware is not very scalable, but switching to the SaaS offering is expected to improve scalability.
Based on my experience, the stability of Cisco Secure Email is very strong.
The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated into the Email Security Gateway so customers don't have to buy two products for full email protection.
The user interface of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) has room for improvement.
Improving the search process by allowing searches with different types of parameters and facilitating searches within emails would be advantageous.
Its cost is bundled with other Cisco products.
The licensing is a mess and needs sorting out.
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
The pricing is reasonable.
Microsoft Exchange is more expensive compared to other services like Gmail.
I find the price of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) to be fairly reasonable, and I have no problems with it.
It also possesses multiple modules for spam detection, malware detection, and threat intelligence, which are valuable in categorizing emails and determining actions.
It is highly effective in catching phishing and spam emails.
It covers everything through email, like antivirus, IDS, and IPS.
We've benefited from the anti-phishing features of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP), as it has been quite accurate and has eliminated most of our phishing emails, making it really impressive.
It offers more features and better security, making it the best option for corporate environments.
In the last three years, has resulted in no antivirus problems.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco Secure Email | 5.5% |
| Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) | 5.1% |
| Other | 89.4% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 18 |
| Large Enterprise | 25 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 24 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 10 |
Cisco Secure Email provides email security with advanced threat protection, spam filtering, and easy integration with Cisco Talos, ensuring comprehensive protection against cyber threats like phishing and malware.
Cisco Secure Email offers a comprehensive platform for organizations seeking robust email security. With advanced threat protection and seamless integration with Cisco Talos, it enhances threat intelligence. The tool provides easy-to-use spam blocking and granular policy customization. Effective ransomware, phishing, and malware protection ensures stable network performance. It includes logging and reporting features, along with Active Directory integration, delivering enhanced security without extra hardware. Although it addresses threats efficiently, improvements in synchronization with reporting tools and phishing detection are needed. Organizations find cost and licensing complexities challenging for smaller networks and seek more intuitive configuration, advanced AI threat detection, and comprehensive reporting. Enhanced support, documentation, and cross-platform compatibility are desirable for better management and scalability.
What are the most important features?In industries like finance, healthcare, and IT, Cisco Secure Email is key to securing email communications. It serves as the primary email gateway in datacenters, scanning and filtering emails to defend against phishing, malware, and spam. Many organizations integrate it with Sophos Antivirus and Talos Threat Intelligence for heightened protection. It plays a crucial role in outbound message control and data loss prevention, ensuring compliance with security policies.
Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is a comprehensive email filtering and security service designed to protect organizations from spam, malware, and other email-based threats. It provides advanced threat protection, anti-malware and anti-spam filtering, and data loss prevention capabilities.
With EOP, organizations can ensure the security and integrity of their email communications. It uses multiple layers of filtering and scanning to detect and block malicious content, including phishing attempts, viruses, and ransomware. EOP also leverages machine learning and artificial intelligence to continuously improve its threat detection capabilities.
In addition to its robust security features, EOP offers advanced anti-spam filtering to reduce unwanted and unsolicited emails. It uses a combination of reputation-based filtering, content filtering, and sender authentication techniques to identify and block spam messages.
EOP also includes data loss prevention (DLP) capabilities to prevent sensitive information from being leaked or shared inappropriately. It allows organizations to define policies to detect and prevent the transmission of sensitive data, such as credit card numbers or social security numbers, via email.
Furthermore, EOP integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Exchange Online and other Office 365 services, providing a unified and integrated email security solution. It can be easily managed through the Exchange admin center, allowing administrators to configure and monitor security settings, review reports, and manage quarantined emails.
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