Our customers use the solution as an email security tool.
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
A stable and easy-to-deploy tool that provides good integrations and blocks spam emails
Pros and Cons
- "The product blocks spam emails."
- "The scalability must be improved."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The product blocks spam emails.
What needs improvement?
The scalability must be improved. The product is a bit traditional. There are many vendors in the market. A customer might not always choose Cisco.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been reselling the solution since 2010.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Secure Email
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Email. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s scalability a seven out of ten. Our customers are medium and enterprise-level businesses.
How was the initial setup?
I rate the ease of setup a seven or eight out of ten. The deployments takes one to two weeks.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the product a seven out of ten on a scale where one is cheap and ten is expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Sometimes, customers choose Forcepoint or Barracuda. Usually, if the customers have a Cisco setup, they choose Cisco Secure Email.
What other advice do I have?
Cisco is an integrated solution. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller

Provides reliable protection, brings awareness, and has adaptable pricing
Pros and Cons
- "The advanced phishing protection and the integration with the awareness tool that Cisco has embedded into the solution to bring awareness to the customers about the dangers of phishing attacks and other things that come from email are the most valuable features."
- "Cisco is already providing a very good environment with the IronPort solution, but there could be some more integration with other products. For instance, an integration with the EDR solution could be there to raise an alert."
What is our primary use case?
I work at S21sec, which is a partner of Cisco in Portugal. We do integration of different Cisco solutions for our customers. Nowadays, we mostly do integration of Cisco cloud solutions for customers.
Cisco Secure Email is the solution that we deploy for customers in Portugal mostly as a backup of an existing solution such as Office 365 because it guarantees that the customer never falls out of options if the main product has some problem. If they rely on having an email solution that cannot fail, that's an excellent option for them to have in place. It's the oldest solution that we deploy for customers in Portugal. It has a very nice history and very good quality. It's perceived by our customers as an email solution that functions all the time.
How has it helped my organization?
One benefit is the resilience of the solution when implemented in conjunction with other solutions, and the other one is the new features that Cisco is adding to the solution itself, such as awareness of advanced phishing threats. The environment that Cisco is building around this primary product in its catalog is helpful.
We offer almost all of the Cisco Security solutions, but recently, we've been working more with cloud solutions. It's easier for customers to adopt them. We also continue to deploy some of the firewall solutions with the physical devices and also email protection solutions either with the VM solutions or with the physical appliances. We've been seeing evermore integration of the products based on the browsing console, which is very nice for customers because they only need to have a browser to access all the different consoles of different products. They can be consolidated with SecureX. It's an advantage for the customer to be able to handle all the different consoles for different integrations that the customer has in one place.
Cisco Talos is a very nice complementary solution to the email protection suite. It gives you the threat intel regarding the latest news and infections that can be problematic for the customers. They become aware of what's happening and any latest vulnerabilities they may have on-prem.
What is most valuable?
The advanced phishing protection and the integration with the awareness tool that Cisco has embedded into the solution to bring awareness to the customers about the dangers of phishing attacks and other things that come from email are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
Cisco has already improved this solution with some add-ons to the basic product. Cisco is already providing a very good environment with the IronPort solution, but there could be some more integration with other products. For instance, an integration with the EDR solution could be there to raise an alert.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been a partner of Cisco for more than 10 years, and we've mostly done integration of solutions.
How are customer service and support?
We usually give the first line of support to the customer, and then only, we go to the Cisco support. We have a very strong Cisco security team in Portugal, so whenever we need any support, we use those resources. I don't remember a time when I had to open a ticket because the local team has been very good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Cisco Secure Email hasn't helped clients consolidate any applications. In Portugal, there's no business for that because what you usually do is implement several solutions that are regarded as the better solutions in terms of the market. In some cases, it could be Cisco, and in other cases, it could be another player. At S21sec, we try to give a better solution to customers and adapt and customize it to the specific needs of our customers.
The main difference between Cisco Secure Email and other solutions is the reliability and the capability to offline the email if there are some problems on the customer side. We can also overcome problems that may arise in terms of the local telecommunication operators that handle the communication. If there's a failure there, we can overcome those problems with the relays from the Cisco solution.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment model varies a little bit. In Portugal, some sectors still rely on on-prem solutions, but we are trying to build awareness that the new solutions relying on the cloud are better for the customers because they don't have to worry about getting new patches and new security updates and patching the infrastructure. They only need to rely on having a service that is provided by Cisco for having the best security. They don't have to worry about the maintenance of the platform itself. The cloud provider that our clients use varies. We work a lot with the banks and financial organizations in Portugal. They are historical customers that don't want to go for public cloud solutions. They still rely on on-prem solutions. They have evolved to having virtualized solutions instead of appliance solutions, but they still rely on having mostly private cloud solutions. They use local providers. We are seeing a shift to global providers but not with all of them.
It's a very modular solution. We have some customers who have deployments all over the world. We clusterize the solutions in each of those locations, and then they connect them with the global management solution. We can manage all the operations of the different clusters spread around the world from one site. It's a very good solution in terms of redundancy even in different geographies.
It's a very easy solution. You can go for a very customizable environment, but usually, for the day-to-day needs of most customers, it's very easy to deploy. You can just customize the options to make it more secure for a customer's environment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's adapted to the market. It's similar to other vendors. We at least don't have many problems regarding that because Cisco is adaptable on that side. When we present the solutions to the customers, we tend to achieve the goals that the customer has in terms of the budget for such implementations.
We offer the best solution for what customers intend to do and the type of problems that their business may have. When a solution is adaptable and customizable to the customer environment, customers tend to go ahead with it. Even if it requires more investment, we find a way of getting it to the budget and getting a good return on investment.
What other advice do I have?
To those evaluating this solution, I'd recommend trying the product. Cloud solutions are very easy to use, and you can do a PoC. In a matter of hours or a day, you can deploy the solution and use it fully.
We are Cisco partners. Cisco has a very nice solution and a very good security team in Portugal, but obviously, they can't cater to all the customers. An integrator does that part. With the relationship that we have with the customers, we can apply and customize the solutions that Cisco has in its portfolio according to the environment and specific needs of each customer.
Our partnership with Cisco is pretty close to a 10 out of 10 because we are getting different kinds of solutions. We at S21sec handle just security. We don't do storage, and we don't do servers. We are very focused on security, and the partnership that we have with Cisco is ever-growing because nowadays, for instance, OT solutions are also a very huge concern for us, and what we have seen with Cisco solutions that are being brought to the market is that they also started to handle the new security issues that we find in other sectors. They are not only into IT. They are also going into the OT and the IoT world. They are able to customize and bring new solutions, even some developed insights, by buying other companies and adapting them to the Cisco reality. They are able to devise a product that handles the needs of different kinds of customers in different areas of the business, not just the IT world but also the industrial world.
I would rate Cisco Secure Email a nine out of ten. It's growing up to be much more than just an email protection tool. It's going for the awareness of the customers, and that's a good complementary solution that addresses other problems that come from using email nowadays.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Secure Email
April 2025

Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Email. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
861,524 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Network Security Engineer at Galaxy Backbone Ltd
Good support, integrates well with SMA, and does what it is designed to do
Pros and Cons
- "It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. It has ensured we don't have business email compromises, and it has also ensured that our brand Galaxy is unique all year round."
- "The area of license renewal should be improved. We normally renew our license every year. There is a feature called smart licensing, and I switched from the legacy mode to the smart licensing mode because of what I thought smart licensing does. I thought it would make licensing renewal seamless and very swift, but ever since I've switched to smart licensing, each time I want to renew my license, it is a whole lot of headache. The process is not smooth, and I had to keep calling Cisco TAC to see how the issue can be resolved. At one point, I wanted to revert back to the legacy mode, but I can't revert. Once you switch from the legacy mode to the smart licensing mode, you can't revert. They should improve on the visibility of the smart licensing mode so that it can indeed be smart and easier to use for the license renewal every year. That is one challenge."
What is our primary use case?
It is our email gateway. We have the Exchange Servers, but the Exchange Servers don't relay directly with the internet. We have ESA in-between, and every incoming and outgoing email must pass through ESA before it gets to the internet.
We are using Email Security Appliance C690, and we have three of them in a cluster. They are on-premise. We have decided not to go to the cloud. It is primarily because most of our clients are government agencies and the government, and they have this suspicion about the cloud. So, right now, we are still on-premise.
Currently, we are on version 13.8. There is a newer version, but we are yet to migrate to that version.
How has it helped my organization?
We use ESA with Security Management Appliance (SMA). We have SMA M690. The integration of ESA and SMA makes the whole work easier. SMA is the central content appliance, and we have three ESAs. The SMA is able to collaborate with the clustered ESAs for log management and other things. It gives some stability in terms of what is happening. ESA keeps a lot of logs, so SMA is able to move through ESA and get those logs out. This integration has really helped us to drive our operation in the email platform.
It does a lot in terms of preventing phishing and business email compromise with DP and Advanced Phishing Protection. DMARC gives visibility for preventing spoofing and social engineering attacks. ESA has been able to help and protect us from those attacks. It is doing a lot of work. Gartner has always rated Cisco's ESA appliance as one of the major players.
It is doing a lot to prevent spam, malware, and ransomware. Everything is also tied to how you have configured it. Some of the spam emails don't get to the customers. We can quarantine a spam email, which gives us the visibility to look at it and see if it is actually spam or not. It is doing its work. It is. There are no false positives. It is working perfectly.
Email service is one of the services that we offer at Galaxy. ESA has improved our business. Our customers want to maintain their business with us for email security. We have over 500 domains on our email platform. It has improved our profitability in everything.
What is most valuable?
They have a lot of features such as Advanced Malware Protection, Email Protection, Advanced Phishing Protection, Antispam, Antivirus, and Outbreak Filters. They are very important.
It is doing its work. It is doing what it was actually designed to do. It has ensured we don't have business email compromises, and it has also ensured that our brand Galaxy is unique all year round.
What needs improvement?
The area of license renewal should be improved. We normally renew our license every year. There is a feature called smart licensing, and I switched from the legacy mode to the smart licensing mode because of what I thought smart licensing does. I thought it would make licensing renewal seamless and very swift, but ever since I've switched to smart licensing, each time I want to renew my license, it is a whole lot of headache. The process is not smooth, and I had to keep calling Cisco TAC to see how the issue can be resolved. At one point, I wanted to revert back to the legacy mode, but I can't revert. Once you switch from the legacy mode to the smart licensing mode, you can't revert. They should improve on the visibility of the smart licensing mode so that it can indeed be smart and easier to use for the license renewal every year. That is one challenge.
Another challenge is that there is no way for me to know my level of utilization. For example, if I have a subscription of 2,000, there should be a way for me to know my level of utilization. Currently, I don't know my level of utilization. So, if my license is renewed on 20,000 subscribers and I'm using less than 20,000, I wouldn't know. It doesn't improve my ROI. If I'm using less than the subscription I've applied for, there should be a way the system should tell me, rather than me going to find out manually. When I go to the smart licensing profile, I should be able to see my utilization. I should be able to see that I've subscribed for 20,000 but I'm only using 12,000. This means that if I'm going to renew, I should reduce my licensing mode from 20,000 to maybe 15,000. This kind of information should be given to the customers, but right now, we don't have that.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution since 2017. My organization has been using it before that. It has always been in use as our email security gateway.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. They have AsyncOS, which is the OS that runs on the appliance. They've released different versions. There is a general version, a limited version, etc. They keep coming with more services just to improve the platform.
We never experienced downtime. We have ESAs, and they are in a cluster. If one ESA fails, there is no downtime. The remaining two can handles email communication and relay. We have high availability and redundancy. So, we don't experience any downtime.
We do ESA health checks with OEM during which they connect with us virtually. They connect to the device and then check if all security features are still well configured and if there is any other way to improve. Doing this quarterly has really helped to make sure that the appliances are up to date.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable.
How are customer service and technical support?
They are very good. I would rate them a nine out of 10. If possible, I would rate them a 10, but I just want to be a little bit reserved.
They've really been very knowledgeable and very patient, and they've always ensured that for any issue, any ticket, or any case that is opened with them, they are prompt. They are quick to ensure that they resolve an issue as soon as possible.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
It has always been ESA from the onset.
How was the initial setup?
I wasn't part of the team from the beginning to the end. I came when they were almost done. It was complex but also very interesting. It took two weeks or so if I'm not mistaken.
For the setup, you need to look at the low-level design and the architecture, and then you look at the network interfaces, listeners, routes, default routes, etc. If there is a way they can come up with step-by-step information about configuring it, that would really be nice. The guide right now is too cumbersome and bulky. If there is more straight-to-the-point and procedural information, it would be better.
What about the implementation team?
Cisco service engineers were the ones in charge.
What was our ROI?
We have seen an ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
At times, we feel the pricing is a bit too high, but then, there is also room for discounts. We enjoy a lot of discounts, and that is why we are still with them. There are no costs in addition to the standard licensing fees.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have evaluated other solutions, such as FortiMail from Fortinet, but we stuck with Cisco ESA. ESA's pricing and licensing were what led to us trying to see how we can bring it all together.
What other advice do I have?
It is stable and credible. I would always tell someone else to try it out. Of course, before you try it out, you can look at what Gartner is saying. Gartner has always placed the Cisco Email Security Appliance up there along with Mimecast and other top players.
It is well-secured. Security is everyone's concern, so I will always tell people to go for it. It is very secure. Its pricing has been a little bit high, but you can always ask for a discount from your account managers, country manager, or whoever is in charge in your region.
I would rate this solution an eight out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network Infrastructure Specialist at Central-Bank-Kenya
A cloud security solution for endpoint and greymail protection
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution for endpoint protection, including email protection, such as antivirus, anti-phishing, content filtering, outbreak filtering, and greymail protection.
What is most valuable?
An important feature is retrospective analysis, which allows the solution to retrieve emails sent even a week ago, even if they have already been delivered. This is done by analyzing emails for malicious content after they have been sent.
What needs improvement?
Cisco Secure Email focuses on cloud-based threat intelligence and endpoint security. The current version improves on the on-premises version by integrating Threat Grid and Advanced Malware Protection, which helps users quickly identify malicious emails.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. We never had issues. If everything is configured right, it's something you can easily forget about.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable.
1300 users are using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
We used it once when the appliance was acting up and then realized that an upgrade was needed. We follow up on the requirements upgrades and patching. It doesn't require much patching.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
Cisco Secure Email can be integrated in-house, but we are too busy. Therefore, we have decided to use an integrator.
What was our ROI?
Even though Cisco Secure Email is not cheap, it offers a good return on investment. Cisco needs to ensure that its products are functional and have a long support timeline.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is not cheap.
What other advice do I have?
Cisco Secure Email is a fast data service. Because of this, most of its features are already pre-configured. All clients need to do is customize and tailor the service to their specific use cases.
I would recommend anyone using the on-premise ports move to the cloud.
Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Easy to read logs, but the pricing structure needs to be improved
Pros and Cons
- "What I find the most valuable about Cisco Secure Email is that the logs are not that difficult to see even if you're not used to them. The logs are reasonably readable and diagnosing the problem is not too hard with them."
- "My opinion on the licensing of this solution is that it is a mess that needs sorting out. I am not particularly bothered by pricing as I administer it and make recommendations for people to buy or not to buy."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case for Cisco Secure Email is placing it at the edge and then passing it off to another service, like, for example, Postfix. We have security policies that allow certain clients to email.
How has it helped my organization?
The user interface massively improved our organization. The device itself works perfectly fine and it's not too complicated to write policies.
What is most valuable?
What I find the most valuable about Cisco Secure Email is that the logs are not that difficult to see even if you're not used to them. The logs are reasonably readable and diagnosing the problem is not too hard with them.
What needs improvement?
Cisco Secure Email could rename features in the menus. They could also show a flow of how things go and where the policies sit in conjunction with the actual application.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Secure Email for about seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would say that we hardly had any issues with the stability of this solution.
How are customer service and support?
Tech support can be a bit of a hit-and-miss. Depends on what type of engineer you get when you contact them. Whenever we had an issue, we would either go to the account manager or another engineer.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My opinion on the licensing of this solution is that it is a mess that needs sorting out. I am not particularly bothered by pricing as I administer it and make recommendations for people to buy or not to buy.
What other advice do I have?
We would use multiple vendors to secure our infrastructure from end to end so that we can detect and remediate threats. We would take everything through email. Email Security Appliance has antivirus and IDS and IPS on anyway. We've got policies in place that only we can receive from certain domains and certain emails within those domains from the customers that they were a part of. We would then pass that on to another service like Postfix. They would then sort out anything that needs to do attachment-wise or anything similar. Eventually, it would go through the Palo Alto firewall as well for the traffic, so anything malicious is picked up across all sets of vendors in that solution.
This solution did not save time for our IT staff, not particularly. It was something we had to deal with and as a network engineer, I had to deal with that aspect of it.
This solution did not save our organization's time because it was a new product that we were selling, so we had more work.
This tool did not help us consolidate our tools because it was a new solution.
We chose Cisco Secure Email because, as the phrase goes, you can't get fired for buying Cisco. We are used to the Cisco product stack as we used the Cisco suite in previous companies.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Network Team Lead at ASYAD
Flexible, saves a lot of time, and drastically reduces spam and phishing emails
Pros and Cons
- "It's flexible. There are a lot of rules and policies that can be easily applied for certain employees or certain mailboxes."
- "If you are not a technical guy, it is hard to maneuver, but as soon as you work on it, it gets better and better. If there was a better way to know how to do things or how to find things, it would be good."
What is our primary use case?
We started using Cisco Secure Email because we had a lot of junk emails, phishing, and things like that. We wanted to secure the email sites for the end users.
How has it helped my organization?
It has had an impact on the awareness of the employees. Previously, a lot of employees were complaining about junk emails, phishing, etc. After using Cisco Secure Email, spam, and other things have been reduced drastically. I'm not sure how it filters them out, but it just learns based on the email subject and other factors. It just filters them and sends them to the junk box. There is an add-on, and if you think that an email is suspicious, you just add it to the add-on or move it to the junk box.
It saves time. Previously, we had to filter the emails and see which ones are junk and if it has been reported or not. There was a daily checking of the mailboxes to see what was going on and what had been blocked, but with Cisco Secure Email, all of that is just in one tab. You see all the emails that have been blocked and the reason they have been blocked. It saves a lot of time for us. It does the job that we need it to do.
What is most valuable?
It's flexible. There are a lot of rules and policies that can be easily applied for certain employees or certain mailboxes.
What needs improvement?
If you are not a technical guy, it is hard to maneuver, but as soon as you work on it, it gets better and better. If there was a better way to know how to do things or how to find things, it would be good.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cisco Secure Email for two and a half to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's stable. We haven't had any issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
After moving from Exchange to Office 365, we thought that we needed to upgrade the license or do a couple of changes, but it was already a part of the plan from the product itself. So, it was easily scalable.
How are customer service and support?
We didn't have to contact them. Our partner did all the jobs that were needed. It was part of the AMC, and since they set it up, it needed just a couple of tweaks when we shifted from Exchange to Office 365. All the support has always been through the partner. Our experience with them has been good.
How was the initial setup?
Based on my knowledge, its implementation was fast, and there were no issues when it was implemented.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did a couple of PoC, and it was leading at that time in the market. We compared it to Barracuda and a couple of others. Its ability had set it apart from others. The partner was good, and the PoC was on point. It did what needed to be done.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Cisco Secure Email an eight out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Owner at Jolly Security Inc
You can know exactly and accurately where an email came from and for which specific device
Pros and Cons
- "It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure."
- "The Forged Email Detection feature needs improvement, particularly with domain. The sensors are not that good and the rules sets are unclear."
What is our primary use case?
It is like a gateway for email. They receive all your email traffic. They send over your email traffic, and it is the first incoming point and the last outgoing point. They deliver the traffic to the destination. Whatever it is, you want to be informed of what is happening. Depending on the site's deployment, if you have a single device, then you have all the information on the device. And if you have several devices, you have all the information on every single device for each device. However, for consolidation, you need another device called Security Management Appliance (SMA).
It has no real interaction with other stuff. It does not interact with a gateway beyond the networking level. You have a router and that router provides IP addresses for a switch, etc. You don't have to integrate Cisco Secure Email with something specific since it is standalone and only requires basic essential networking. You can integrate it with a firewall, like ASA, but that firewall has to allow traffic. To do that, you would open port 25.
It is available to be deployed as on-premises, on the cloud, and hybrid cloud.
How has it helped my organization?
The solution is valuable if you are looking for a security email gateway that provides you with the most services possible. It has anything that you may be looking for in an email deployment, except for the endpoint which should be supported by something else, like Exchange. It doesn't have mailboxes because it is a gateway.
There are some methods to authenticate email, i.e., putting a stamp or seal of trust on an email, where one method is DKIM and another is SPF.
- For SPF in the DNS, where you have records that list the different devices or IP addresses that can send email from a specific domain, a security device can consult that DNS and check if the mail coming from that domain is coming from an authorized source.
- DKIM is a cryptographic signature of an email. It is usually what you announce is the public key of that system's PKI and verify the signature in the headers. You have a checksum of all the contents so it is possible to define or identify whether the message has been tampered with in route.
They are mutually exclusive in a way, so DMARC consolidates both. It provides alignment with the IP address, domain name, etc., and has to match at least one, being properly aligned. It has become something very important for compliance.
When you are receiving, you use all this information to decide whether an email is legitimate. Or, if you also need to deploy your DKIM, DMARC, and SPF infrastructure, that lets the rest of the world know where you are sending email from and how you are authenticating your email.
It can honor all SPF, DKIM, and DMARC rule sets and apply rules based on the results of these tests as well as sign the DKIM. Therefore, your email can comply with whatever you are announcing on your DNS for the rest of the world to know that you know about the signed domains. It has perfect, robust integration on that.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is reputation filtering. In the beginning, it was based on just the IP source. but it has now evolved to domain reputation. It allows you to classify different IP sources and different sender groups, where you can reject to throttle to whitelist from any IP sources, domains, etc. Based on the reputation gathering, the reputation is powered by Talos security. It is a super powerful feature. That alone gets rid of more than 50% of the crap from the traffic flow, before even hitting the anti-spam or antivirus.
If you have some knowledge about email, it is a pretty simple solution that has many controls on different levels, from the gateway part to accepting messages from certain sources to stringent filtering. It is state of the art with anti-spam, antivirus, and different threat prevention features.
SecureX is powered by Talos, Sourcefire, etc. Today, it is the largest, richest threat intelligence on the market. SecureX is quite standalone in regards to integration since you put it into the network, whether it is on your own cloud or a third-party cloud.
If you go to the filtering level, you can have very accurate features or filters since it is programmatic. At a certain point, you can define sets of rules, such as where the email is coming from, whether it has this content, or to apply this policy. For example, if it has the same considerations, but the content is different, apply this another policy. It is super flexible and very customizable to your needs. It is not difficult to use.
It provides information, reporting, logging, and tracking. It has powerful tracking, so you can know exactly and accurately where an email came from, for which specific device, etc. It shows the emails which were:
- Dropped
- Rejected
- Quarantined
- Accepted by which policies.
It also shows the rule sets applied for that email and considers
- The source
- The Offender
- Anything else that you may consider in an email.
It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure.
What needs improvement?
You can consolidate on SMA if you want to spam or threats quarantined for multiple devices. It is not advisable for a single device, because if it fails, you are left without any email.
I would like to see a few changes to the UX.
There is space for improvement with data loss prevention, particularly with third-parties integration. Data loss prevention is quite important, though most customers have some third-party or other elements in their network doing data loss prevention, specifically for email. However, if it could be possible to integrate with other solutions, not only on the email flow, but on analysis for a connector or something like that, then that would be ideal.
The Forged Email Detection feature needs improvement, particularly with domain. The sensors are not that good and the rules sets are unclear.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it since 2004.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It does not add anything to the potential downtime for a corporation, unless everything fails. If all your email exchanges fail, then you don't have email, but this solution does not affect the performance of your whole network.
At the minimum, you need two devices. If you have two devices and one fails, then the other one can handle the work, though you might have some email delays.
You should keep track of what is going on. It does need some daily administration, fixes, and policy changes.
How are customer service and support?
In general, their technical support is really good. There are a few who are still learning, e.g., not providing enough help, but there is always the option to escalate.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
It was the IronPort before Cisco acquired it in 2007. It is the same appliance and software. This solution has been upgraded by several versions, but it is basically the same, they just changed the name.
What about the implementation team?
I have done the architecture for a company in China.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is a super big router that costs a few hundred thousand dollars.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
These days, the first tiers of this market have good enough anti-spam, antivirus, etc. These have become routine. There are some other not-so-good solutions, like Barracuda and Fortinet, but it depends on how much you are willing to pay as this solution is not cheap.
The best other solution is Proofpoint. They have been long-time competitors who have also been evolving. The big difference is it is more fancy because it has more bells and whistles. The solution is good as well. However, they are super expensive, not cheap.
If you want a multi-tiered deployment, you could perhaps have Secure Email on the cloud and Proofpoint on-premises. Then, you have the two best solutions in the market working together. I have customers who have done this and are satisfied. Very few solutions can compete with Secure Email and Proofpoint outside of the price. If your budget is a problem, then you have a problem.
Along with Proofpoint, this is the best solution in terms of preventing spam, malware, and ransomware.
Check Point has fancy graphics and an interface where you can do a lot. The Cisco Secure gateway has both, though not as fancy as Check Point, but a big majority of the tasks can be done on the graphical interface level.
What other advice do I have?
It is not so difficult to us, but neither is it easy, particularly if you don't have some knowledge about email.
Whatever you are looking for with an email security appliance or device, you mostly have it, though nobody is perfect.
The solution’s ability to prevent phishing and business-email compromise is fairly good. DKIM, DMARC, and SPF integration are the best way to prevent phishing, spoofing, etc. However, they still have room to work in this area.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Technical Support Engineer at AlgoSec
Easy to use and set up but has stability issues
Pros and Cons
- "It's a bit easy to handle Cisco Secure Email; it's not that difficult. For the logs, which are in PDF format, it's not hard to read them. We don't need Wireshark much to analyze the logs."
- "I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability."
What is most valuable?
It is easy to use. It is not widely used, but it is not tough to understand. Usually, it takes five to six months to become an expert in that particular product because there is not much in it.
What needs improvement?
The Cisco database is more bug-prone and less accurate than the databases of other email security solutions. Whenever we get a phishing email, Microsoft email server, TruePoint, or Barracuda, they have a much better database. Because Cisco is using Talos, which is not a good database, they do not have much information in the database. So that is really lagging very much behind.
So that is not much recommended by the customers. Every time, customers get frustrated by using them.
There's room for improvement in the DevOps database. It has many spam emails. Usually, we have to report to the Telos team for samples, whether it's spam or a legitimate email. If that is done, then the customer environment won't get compromised easily because more than 80% of cyber-attacks are through emails. So email is like sanitizer it was used in hospitals before COVID, but after, it's provided widely to users.
For how long have I used the solution?
I used this solution for a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability. Usually, the customer complains that there's an email coming from an outside sender, and it enters our environment, and our email gets multiple emails from a single sender. There might be suspicious emails or multiple things that we usually get from customers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I would rate the scalability a seven out of ten. Cisco has to improve its database because email security is something like DNS servers. So we have to improve the database and put more information initially in it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It starts with the VLS for Open IT. Initially, the host access table is there in the front end. Based on that, we can filter out traffic with IPs from the scale of -10 to +10 if it applies. If you want to whitelist an IP, you need to check the IVRX code. If that code is okay, then we provide a list based on the organization.
It's a bit easy to handle Cisco Secure Email; it's not that difficult. For the logs, which are in PDF format, it's not hard to read them. We don't need Wireshark much to analyze the logs.
Usually, it's GUI-friendly, and also, the Relics are there on the GUI. We can create some relics, or it's automated from the backend by the development team. We just put in our initial setup requirements, and based on that, we create a red x rule. Then we can implement it into the message filter, and we can handle whatever we want, whether it's blocking emails coming from spam or anything else.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. Once you have hands-on experience with it over a period of time, you will get hands-on experience, and you will be able to understand it. It's easy to use, not that much complicated.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.

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Updated: April 2025
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