Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) Reviews

It detects attacks from malicious intrusions and malicious activity before they happen.

This solution has helped improve productivity and detect attacks before they happen.

Signature rules from the Snort community around the world.

• I would like to see better integration with SIEMs. 
• Better rule building using other tools, like LuaH and Python.
• Better performance.
• Better intelligence gathering in domains, the main URLs, and endpoint solutions.

It's very reliable. We really like the product and will be staying with the product a while.

At this point in time, it's making it a little bit difficult to scale due to the company, as the vendor is making some changes. We are waiting to see if the product is scalable or not. 

Rating the technical support from one to five (where five is high), I would rate them as a two. I find them to be very bad.

This was originally a Snort product, which was open source. So, there is a community for it worldwide.

We used ISS from IBM in the past, but it was causing many issues and was dropping packets. It was not an ideal solution, so we moved to Sourcefire FirePower NGIPS.

The initial setup is easy because I am very familiar with the product.

We buy the licensing on a yearly basis, when we renew our contract. It is around $14,000.

McAfee and Palo Alto were on our shortlist.

The product is a ten because it is the only product in the market like this.

We have a Cisco ASA firewall, which is like a standard firewall. We upgraded to Firepower Threat Defense, and it is like a next-generation capability, like NGIPS and NGAV, and has that kind of functionality. It also improves network security and threat defence.

It has helped to improve our cybersecurity and our network security posture.

The FTD has a GUI interface, which is very easy to work around with all the configurations. It is a client-based software based on Java. Now we have the GUI web interface, and it's very interactive and easy to navigate.

Cisco NGIPS runs the backend as a Snort engine, so it is like they customize it with Cisco. So they need to have an engine for threat defence.

We have been using this solution for two years and are using version 9.6. It is deployed on-premises.

It is a stable solution.

It is scalable. NGIPS is based on our user base, so we have around 2000 users. We require two network and security administrators for deployment and maintenance. We do not plan to increase usage because we have already upgraded.

I rate the technical support a ten out of ten.

Positive

We updated from Cisco ASA to NGIPS FTD.

The initial setup is a bit complex because it requires a lot of configuration, firewall and zoning. The deployment was done in-house. We just purchased a box and installed it on our own.

We have seen a return on investment in improving security and defending the threats in our network.

I do not have details about the licensing costs. It has a user-based license and a different model license because it is modular software.

I rate this solution an eight out of ten. From a recommendation perspective, before deploying the NGIPS solution, you need to work with your internal environment. It can minimize the load on the NGIPS, so you should do your IPS signature before moving to production.

It should have a network and content processor and a security process for additional features. Other OEMs have these capabilities to enhance the throughput and performance.

The Cisco NGIPS and IGS are used as network firewalls for IPS and IGS protection. I have both the Cisco Firepower and Cisco Meraki solutions in different customers' locations. They have the capability of the NGIPS built into it. We have different customers that they are using it. For example, on Edge, data centers, and campus networks.

Among all the different solutions I have worked with, such as Palo Alto many other firewalls. Cisco has the support, documentation, and design. The documentation is widely available and it can help you a lot with implementation. It makes the implementation much easier.

What I don't like about Cisco recently is they keep changing the names, which makes it hard for customers and sometimes even us as engineers to know what is the solution they are speaking about. For example, with AMP, now they call it Secure Endpoint and I don't know if in the next couple of years they're going to change it to something else. They should keep the names the same.

I have been using Cisco NGIPS for approximately 10 years.

Cisco NGIPS is stable, however, it is nothing special.

The scalability of Cisco NGIPS I am not too familiar with. The solution can do clustering and other operations. With the Orchestrator, I haven't worked with it yet but I hope that will help to make standard policies all run better. The most important part about scalability is how do you want to apply the same policy all around and across the different locations that you have. This is something that is not easy with any firewall unless you have a Secure Orchestrator. I don't see any issues with the scalability at this time.

The support from Cisco NGIPS is very good.

I have used many other solutions, such as Palo Alto.

I would rate the price of Cisco NGIPS a three out of five.

They are very expensive in some places and not reasonable at times for many customers. I have had customers choose another solution because of the high price.

When speaking about the features of Cisco NGIPS, what makes the feature good is dependent on what the customer likes and the skillset that they have. I cannot say what is the best feature because it depends on the use case.

There are times I see customers spend a lot of money on something which they really don't use. Whether this solution is good or not depends on what exactly the customer wants to implement and protect. They should pick the right solution with the skillset that they have.

I rate Cisco NGIPS nine out of ten.

We use the solution for traffic filtering, security, and antivirus capabilities.

I have found the filter and the antivirus to be most valuable.

The user interface needs some improvement, it is a little rudimentary and not very intuitive. If you are not very technical inclined you may need to be assisted or might struggle to set it up.

The newer version tends to use a lot of system resources. For example, your processor and RAM.

I have been using the solution for approximately four years.

The solution is stable and reliable, it does the job well.

The scalability is excellent, they can support a large environment. However, a large size organization will need its own dedicated appliance.

The customer support is very good.

We have used and still use Darktrace. We do not use it to replace Cisco's NGIPS solution but we use it predominantly as an in-network snooper.

The installation is complex.

We used an in-house team to do the deployment and it takes roughly a day and a half depending on the size of your organization and the configuration. Setting up the rules, all the features, and the licensing takes time.

To do the maintenance you need somebody familiar with Cisco and networking technologies.

By using this solution we have received a return on our investment. 

Cisco products are not cheap and this solution is no different. However, the price of all of the Firepower is part of a bundle when you buy the actual firewall, the Cisco firewall. It is part of the whole bundle package, but Firepower IPS itself has its own costs.

We are on a yearly license and the price depends on the environment, we pay approximately $33,000. The solution has additional components, and each one of the components cost extra.

For those wanting to implement this solution, I was advice before deploying the solution, understand exactly what you want it to do for you. The product has a couple of different capabilities, do you want to expand, or you may not want to expand. These are scenarios that you have to take into account. I would not recommend the solution for small organizations, it would be too time-consuming for that.

I rate Cisco NGIPS an eight out of ten.

We are a system integrator, and we resell this solution to our customers.

This solution is for intrusion prevention, and the majority of deployments are on-premises.

The most valuable feature of this solution is its modularity, so whenever you need to upgrade or add another service, you don't need to buy another box. You can activate these services on the same box, which saves a lot in terms of cost because you don't need additional hardware. Moreover, it makes manageability easier because you don't have to use several different devices.

Cisco operates on an open operating system platform so it gives you the flexibility to add other things. Cisco itself is using different manufacturers, or OEM vendors to integrate with their product. For example, Radware is providing a DDoS solution for the NGIPS box.

We would like to see support for DDoS protection.

The cost of adding additional throughput is very high and is an area of concern. Competing products such as FortiGate and TippingPoint have a much larger throughput at a smaller cost.

The devices have certain limitations and to go beyond them, I need to change the hardware. For example, if I exceed the throughput on the 2000 series then I have to switch to the 4000 series. This one then has a limitation of perhaps fifty gigabytes, and if I exceed that, then I need to move to the 9000 series. By comparison, TippingPoint and FortiGate have no limit. If there was a software-based solution for scaling up then it would be much better.

This is a very stable solution. We have not heard any complaints from customers, and we have not experienced any trouble ourselves.

When it comes to scalability, there is a limitation that is set by the hardware. If you're looking for higher throughput then you have to change boxes. The 2000 series is pretty small when it comes to bandwidth, so scalability is a concern.

Technical support from Cisco is perfectly fine, and they are doing a great job.

Prior to this solution, we used TippingPoint. Although it is a very good solution, there was a problem with the product having too many acquisitions. Every time there was a new acquisition, support was a concern. For example, at one point it was taken over by HP, and then, again, HP disowned it. Support was hampered by this, and if you're not getting support on a critical security appliance then you need to look for other options. This is what led us to adopt Cisco.

The initial setup of this solution is not complex. They have a graphical user interface for managing all of these things, which helps make it easy to deploy.

The price for additional throughput is the highest in the industry.

This is a solution that I recommend for IPS.

I would rate this solution a seven out of ten.

In my company, the solution is used as a platform for cybersecurity. The product offers protection from malware. In general, the solution offers protection to our company's internal network.

The product's benefits experienced by the company stem from the fact that the solution provides keep abilities that help users see what is happening in their network. The solution also provides alerts.

My company does not use the URL filtering capabilities offered by Cisco NGIPS. My company prefers to use the URL filtering feature offered by a brand other than Cisco since other tools provide an easier way to use the functionality.

I wanted to look into the other products offered in the market because Cisco NGIPS is expensive. The product's high price is an area of concern where improvements are required.

I have been using Cisco NGIPS for eight years. My company has a partnership with Cisco. I am also a user of the product. My company operates as a reseller of Cisco products.

I don't remember seeing any crashes when using the solution. The product has been very stable in our company.

The scalability offered by the product is fine. My company has not faced any problems with the scalability feature. The solution is deployed in three of our company's data centers.

The first call that I had with the product's technical team was not good since it took time to provide an explanation to get the right engineer to help us with our problems. Once the user gets connected with the right engineer, the support offered is very good.

I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

I have experience with Fortinet. I don't remember the name of one of the solutions that I had used in the past.

The product's initial setup phase was easy.

I rate the product's initial setup phase a nine on a scale of one to ten, where one means a difficult process, and ten means that it is an easy process.

The solution is deployed on an on-premises model.

The solution can be deployed in a couple of weeks. We take care of the testing phase in our company before installing the solution only when the signatures are updated in our environment, which takes around a time frame of less than two weeks.

Around three or four engineers take care of the product's installation phase.

My company purchases professional services from Cisco's partner to take care of the installation phase.

Cisco NGIPS is an expensive product.

I have compared Fortinet FortiGate IPS against Cisco NGIPS.

With Cisco NGIPS, the rate of false positives is very low.

I would tell those who plan to use Cisco NGIPS that it is a good solution, but if they have budget constraints, they should explore the other brands in the market.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

At present, we are using different policies against which we gather logs. Logs that have been deleted on a first in, first out basis. The logs are only available for three to four hours max. I work in the IT department of a pharmaceutical company and we are customers of Cisco. 

We are looking for cybersecurity threats, like Pinterest and this solution has a good IPS feature as well as it's VirtualBox which helps us to time and for the QD, our daily routine tasks or issues. The solution provides a clear picture of what a user is doing at a specified time.

Because of cybersecurity threats, other security features should be available in Cisco devices. Sangfor IAM is good because this provides the logging IAM feature which you can retain for up to 12 months. But Cisco does not provide this type of logging because no third-party logging server is supported with the Cisco firewall.

I've been using this solution for three years. 

The stability is fine. We manage to resolve general bugs by updating the software or VirtualBox as well as in the hardware. That is not a big deal for us.

The scalability is fine for us, we currently have 50 users. 

Their technical support is good. We have SLA with Cisco, which will be renewed next year.

We have a somewhat complicated environment over here. We have also implemented SSG Juniper, SSG140, so basically their firewall is working as a router.

The price is a little high in comparison to other similar solutions. If we talk about Sophos Firewall with IBM software, it's cheaper in comparison to Cisco and their VirtualBox.

I recommend this latest model of Cisco firewall. In terms of the wide logging, it gives us as much as we need. We have implemented 30 to 35 policies in which loggings are gathered. 

I would rate this solution an eight out of 10. 

Some of our customers are having DDOS attacks and ransomware attacks.

Earlier in July 2019, I noted that there was an attack. To mitigate future attacks from the ransomware in Columbia Bank and other similar situations, we at Cisco Talent, which is responsible for security intelligence, provided updated security rules. We offered intrusion policies and codes through signatures to help overcome such situations.

It's a good solution.

The solution is not that bad. Next-generation firewalls work from my experience, they work. 

The URL filtering feature and the new locations feature are both valuable additions to the solution.

While the Management GUI and FMC could be improved, the devices themselves function well.

I have been using Cisco NGIPS for more than five years.

I provided support for version 6.4, but in our company, we do have Firepower version 7.0.

Cisco NGIPS is a stable solution.

Cisco has great support.

I would rate Cisco NGIPS an eight out of ten.