Our primary use case for Cisco Umbrella is for content filtering and for different access lists. We have different lists for different departments of what they can access.
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Very easy to accomplish content filtering, we don't need to do a lot of customization for it
Pros and Cons
- "It makes it really easy to accomplish content filtering. We don't have to do a lot of customization. You just click the box for the content category and it's up to date."
- "I would like for them to continue building on IPS and IDS functionalities."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It makes it really easy to accomplish content filtering. We don't have to do a lot of customization. You just click the box for the content category and it's up to date.
This ability is very important to my organization because we're in the financial sector and security is at a premium.
What is most valuable?
Cisco Umbrella is pretty straightforward and simple to use. We recently did social media blocking and it was really easy for our marketing department to access it. It's pretty straightforward.
It helped free up IT staff for other projects. It saves us a lot of time by blocking potential breaches. It's very reliable.
Umbrella has definitely helped us improve our cybersecurity resilience by blocking malicious links and adware.
What needs improvement?
I would like for them to continue building on IPS and IDS functionalities.
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Umbrella
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cisco Umbrella for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's been very reliable. I haven't had any issues with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is easy. It's deployed through group policies.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We're a Cisco shop. We have a lot of their products.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI through its pop-up blocking.
What other advice do I have?
We hope that Cisco will help us consolidate tools more than it is now by incorporating more IPS and IDS functionality.
My advice to someone considering Cisco Umbrella would be to focus on how easy is to use the GUI and how easy it is to navigate. You pretty much just click a box and the content categories work.
I would rate Cisco Umbrella a ten out of ten.
If your needs vary by department, I would advise making different groups for different departments. It's easier to do it that way than to set it up and go back to tie it to different AV groups.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Has DNS integration with data directories and enables our customers to be secure
Pros and Cons
- "Umbrella enables customers to be secure. We are happy with this and this is the most important benefit for customers."
- "The pricing changes too fast. We get the license and we need to relicense it because they already made changes to it. We always need to be on top of the licenses because they're always changing."
What is our primary use case?
Our customers use Umbrella for a security network. They want to have DNS connectivity and drop traffic before it becomes dodgy.
Clients implement Umbrella with the full proxy.
How has it helped my organization?
Umbrella enables customers to be secure. We are happy with this and this is the most important benefit for customers.
What is most valuable?
DNS is the most valuable feature of Umbrella. We want to have DNS integration with data directories and we have customers asking about the Azure Integration.
We try to fit all the Cisco Secure products together. This is the value the customers can see as well. We enable the Firewalls, Umbrella, and AMP so that the customer can see the whole view of what Cisco is doing.
What needs improvement?
Our customers want to be able to work remotely. They want Umbrella to work securely from the office and to work securely outside of the office.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Umbrella for years now. We have an Umbrella internally as well. I sell Umbrella to customers. We offer the full setup to them.
We are resellers and integrators.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is getting better.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is fine. The central management, that comes with most solutions, is really good. It's easier for us to go from two devices to 20 devices.
How are customer service and support?
We have had quite a good experience with their support so I can't complain about it. Most of the time TAC cases are quite straightforward and do not take a long time to fix.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
Our clients deploy on public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, on-premise, or SaaS.
I am an engineer and do the initial deployment for them and make tweaks until it works for them.
The complexity of the deployment will depend on the client's requirements. Some of them have straightforward requirements and some of them are quite detailed. The implementation itself is fine but there can be details where we need to check the documentation and make sure we're following what they require.
Customers use the Firewall Migration for the migration mostly from the ASAs. We do the ASA to FTD migration, which doesn't work well.
Two or three engineers are required for the deployment. The installation is done by different engineers.
We also do the maintenance. So whatever we deployed, we also support. We do all the support requirements, updating and reviewing the deployment that we did. We do the config that is required. For example, for the migration, if we deploy something, we come back to review what we did because we want to make sure that the customer is more secure than it was before. So we just rerun the same configuration, trying to find out if there's a gap that we can fix and make sure that the customer is secure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing changes too fast. We get the license and we need to relicense it because they already made changes to it. We always need to be on top of the licenses because they're always changing.
What other advice do I have?
Cisco Talos seems to be working fine for our customers.
My advice to somebody considering this solution is to try it. It's probably the best option to try it and see if it works. Do a proof of concept and proof of value for the customer.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Umbrella
March 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2026.
884,976 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Network and security architect at Airbus Group
Good visibility, good support, and simple to deploy
Pros and Cons
- "We can have a full overview and a quick overview of all the DNS requests. For us, it's quite important."
- "They can maybe simplify the configuration. For example, sometimes, the proxy part is quite difficult, and that's why we didn't deploy that."
What is our primary use case?
It's for the VPN nomad connection. We capture all the DNS requests, log them, and check them in case of troubleshooting for security or malware issues.
How has it helped my organization?
Through Cisco Umbrella, we managed to deploy our M365 system and our connection. It was very good for deploying access to those cloud systems. It was a very important requirement to check all the connections from outside when the laptops are remote, and we managed to capture all the DNS requests. It was a security requirement.
It hasn't saved us time, but we managed to deploy the connectivity to the cloud system such as Azure or M365.
What is most valuable?
We can have a full overview and a quick overview of all the DNS requests. For us, it's quite important.
What needs improvement?
Cisco Umbrella is a good solution. It meets all of our needs. They can maybe simplify the configuration. For example, sometimes, the proxy part is quite difficult, and that's why we didn't deploy that.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using it for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have no issues at the moment. It has been two years, and we did not have any issues. So, for us, it's quite good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about 6,000 devices. So, I have no problem with scalability.
How are customer service and support?
Their support is very good. We have a lot of feedback from our partners and our Cisco contacts. They get in touch to be sure that we are using the product correctly and whether we have any questions. I have had no problem with them. It's super good. I'd rate them a ten out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We didn't use any other solution previously. It's the first time we are using such a solution.
How was the initial setup?
We were already using Cisco AnyConnect, and for us, it was a simple plugin. We didn't spend much time. We did some tests. We worked with a local French team, and after that, we deployed it. For us, it was very simple to deploy.
What about the implementation team?
We deployed it ourselves with the help of a partner in France. The partner company is called Nomios, and we had a good experience with them. They know a lot of Cisco products, which is very good. They are into security and network architecture.
What was our ROI?
We haven't yet seen an ROI.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Its price for us is quite expensive because it's a subscription, and we just use it for the DNS log. So, for us, it's quite expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We didn't evaluate any other solution. We went for Cisco Umbrella because we already had Cisco AnyConnect. We just used the plugin, and it was very simple for us to deploy it.
What other advice do I have?
I'd rate Cisco Umbrella an eight out of ten. For me, it's quite a good product.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Network Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 201-500 employees
We don't need to access multiple devices in order to give access to our internal resources
Pros and Cons
- "The single-pane-of-glass management is really important. In today's era, administration costs and operational expenses will cost you a lot, and it reduces that as well. You don't need extra resources to manage all your parameter firewalls, looking at every single device to allow resources internal access. By just introducing the single-pane-of-glass management, it has lifted the burden off of management, especially the network management."
- "We are not using a DNS solution, but we have been using the firewalls and all the proxy firewalls instead, which has really helped us since we now know that the entire network environment is being secured by Umbrella."
- "We faced an issue regarding virtual appliances (VAs) during deployment. They could improve the quality and management of the virtual appliances offered right now. You can't see much because it is a Linux machine, and they have customized it. You don't have any route access to the machine, only seeing limited things in it. When we opened a ticket, they didn't know much about VAs themselves. So, that is where it is lacking right now. I know this will improve in the long run."
- "We faced an issue regarding virtual appliances (VAs) during deployment. They could improve the quality and management of the virtual appliances offered right now."
What is our primary use case?
We have deployed an on-prem virtual appliance for Active Directory (AD) and user mapping. We have integrated our AD with it as well as all the pre-reqs that come with it.
How has it helped my organization?
It is a DNS solution. It stops us at the first layer of Layer 7, stopping at the DNS level. It just removes the burden for opening a connection, then looking at the firewalls and all the parameter devices. It has a single pane of glass that keeps you secure.
It has helped us in terms of the roaming client. That has helped us in terms of security. Whereas, previously the roaming client was bothering us, which got us into this solution. That has helped the end user with laptops and devices for different sites. This keeps us secure at all times wherever they go.
We are not using a DNS solution, but we have been using the firewalls and all the proxy firewalls instead, which has really helped us since we now know that the entire network environment is being secured by Umbrella. It gives us a real pat on the back that we are being backed by the Talos cloud and its security. We are monitoring in real-time. It works by itself to assess all the security features and parameters through Talos, which is really interesting and good for our environment.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features are actually the reporting with all the visibility. It gives a hawk-eye view when we map AD with Umbrella. It gives us the visibility of every user, e.g., which sites and content are being used and who is accessing what. That has really been a good new addition for me.
We don't need to access multiple devices in order to give access to our internal resources. We are secured in having everything on a single pane of glass, which keeps us secure as well. We can enter the configuration to reach our destinations based on the main names. Other than that, it also secures us by not looking at only the destination, but also the predefined security parameters that Cisco Umbrella has provided. For example, if I coded command and control centers (CNCs), then most phishing websites, where there are known websites caught by Talos, are being categorized as the bad domain. That is where it gives us a nice, handy lift.
The single-pane-of-glass management is really important. In today's era, administration costs and operational expenses will cost you a lot, and it reduces that as well. You don't need extra resources to manage all your parameter firewalls, looking at every single device to allow resources internal access. By just introducing the single-pane-of-glass management, it has lifted the burden off of management, especially the network management.
It gives us a quick view into what we are looking at. We don't need to go to the different devices and see where our traffic is starving, etc. So, we have better visibility, when using Umbrella, from its single pane of glass.
What needs improvement?
We faced an issue regarding virtual appliances (VAs) during deployment. They could improve the quality and management of the virtual appliances offered right now. You can't see much because it is a Linux machine, and they have customized it. You don't have any route access to the machine, only seeing limited things in it. When we opened a ticket, they didn't know much about VAs themselves. So, that is where it is lacking right now. I know this will improve in the long run.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for seven or eight months.
How are customer service and support?
We used support when we were deploying the VAs. So, we have opened tickets a couple of times when we were stuck.
The technical support is alright. I would rate it as eight of 10. There was one time when I opened a ticket regarding the VAs, which didn't go quite well. However, it has been a good experience overall.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not previously use another DNS solution. This solution was our first.
How was the initial setup?
It is very easy to maintain network connectivity. For medium- and large- enterprises, it is not going to take more than a week or so to deploy the solution. Or, you can deploy it with fewer complexities in a couple of hours. Therefore, it is not that hard to gel it into your existing network. So, it works like a charm for us.
In our environment, all traffic was going to the data center. It didn't take us much time, or the complexity of the network wasn't much, so it didn't bother us to pre-plan its migration. We just had to change all our DNSs on the perimeter firewalls and point them towards Umbrella, and that was it.
What was our ROI?
It has helped us to remediate threats more quickly.
It is pretty much handy in terms of what it offers. Actually, it is all about how it caters to your security. Every solution has their pros and cons, but Cisco Umbrella catches all the vulnerabilities and things that could hit any organization.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Previously, we were not tracking roaming clients, which were changing networks every time. I was wondering if something was hitting the endpoints, because we wouldn't know. When Cisco Umbrella joined our network, it explored all our networks. This was really interesting and a key part of why we chose it.
What other advice do I have?
The end user isn't tech-savvy and doesn't care what is being done. As far as the system admin and network admins are concerned, their work has been reduced in terms of management and managing the entire network.
I would rate the solution as nine out of 10.
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
Technical Solutions Architect at Flint
Video Review
Is user friendly and easy to deploy, and provides single-pane-of-glass management
Pros and Cons
- "One valuable feature is definitely its simplicity in terms of deployment. It is very easy to integrate it into the environment without any heavy lifting. Users didn't notice that we implemented it. You can start with a very low monitoring mode and start observing what Cisco Umbrella sees."
- "In general, it increases the security level, helps us prevent threats from being accessed, and increases the visibility into internet-bound traffic, so overall it increases the internet security of the organization."
- "I'd like to see this solution more closely integrate with other products Cisco has in its portfolio."
- "I'd like to see this solution more closely integrate with other products Cisco has in its portfolio."
What is our primary use case?
As a Cisco partner, try to test things on our own before we position the product to our customers or educate partners on it. So, the primary use case was to test things out and to be our own first customer. We started using it internally for our own purposes to secure our access to the internet with Umbrella.
We use Cisco Umbrella to secure internet connectivity and especially to focus on the threats introduced through web browsing. This is because most of the applications the workers use are browser-based.
The traffic, by default, is typically encrypted with HPS, and we use Cisco Umbrella to get more insight into that traffic. The classical security appliances have very low visibility into them. This is where we see Cisco Umbrella have the most traction.
How has it helped my organization?
In general, it increases the security level. It helps us prevent threats from being accessed. Also, the visibility into internet bounce traffic is increased. So, in general, it increases the overall internet security of the organization.
What is most valuable?
One valuable feature is definitely its simplicity in terms of deployment. It is very easy to integrate it into the environment without any heavy lifting. Users didn't notice that we implemented it. You can start with a very low monitoring mode and start observing what Cisco Umbrella sees.
In terms of helping workers feel safe, secure, supported, and included, the solution is pretty transparent to the end user in most cases. They don't necessarily get any confidence from it, but it's supposed to be that way. It's supposed to be as transparent as possible. However, when the end-user accesses a site that is blacklisted or treated as potentially suspicious, he or she will see a warning displayed. This gives them additional confidence that somebody else is taking care of the details and that they can confidently browse around. If they come across a suspicious site, they know that they will get a warning or advice on how to proceed.
Cisco Umbrella supporting hybrid work environments is important. Within our organization, even before COVID, a lot of us worked remotely from time to time. For companies that we work with, it has become a reality with COVID. Before, everybody was working on site, and now, that's no longer the case. It is important to have flexibility and know that even if we work from home or from another place we're still secure.
For all Umbrella-related things, it does provide single-pane-of-glass management, but it's one component. If I look at the typical employee, he is only one piece of the puzzle. Other solutions, like, for example, AnyConnect for remote access, are managed separately. For Umbrella-specific items, it's a single interface for management. For monitoring, policies, and troubleshooting a specific case, everything is in one place. I don't need to go through the logs to know where to look.
My organization is not very large, and I'd say my colleagues are pretty proficient. So, it's not a high priority to have single-pane-of-glass management, but it's always good if solutions are capable of integrating together. If by enabling single-pane-of-glass management the workflow is simplified and the day-to-day operations are a little easier, then that's something we definitely want to benefit from.
The administrator user experience is definitely optimized by single-pane-of-glass management, especially if the personnel are busy. Then, it helps if all the relevant details are in one place.
In terms of maintaining network connectivity, Umbrella on its own is pretty user-friendly. It is easy to set up and maintain. It's one of its strong suits.
For the branch and campus, it's very simple to apply and maintain network connectivity. For the home environments, there are options to integrate it into the employee's PC as well. Cisco Umbrella supports different methods for different environments so that you can achieve the level of implementation that you need. It's where it should be.
It's very efficient in securing the infrastructure from end to end so that we can detect and remediate threats. You can simply adopt it right into the environment, and you don't need to build the rule sets on your own. It utilizes best practices, and it's very easy to set up policies such as potential malicious categories on the internet, what you want to block, what you want to filter out, etc. It's very easy to implement those.
When you go through the reports, you can see what kind of threats were blocked. Luckily, we haven't had an incident where something got through and caused a security incident.
In terms of metrics on how Cisco Umbrella has been able to remediate threats, the numbers look pretty impressive. However, it's hard to assess how serious that potential threat really was. It's hard to put actual weight on the numbers to determine how meaningful those numbers are.
The value that resilience helps offer in cyber security is pretty high. Cyber security resilience is a high priority in our organization. It's important to our customers that we handle what we do for them in a secure manner.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see this solution more closely integrate with other products Cisco has in its portfolio.
I would also like to be able to manage the identities, for example. If you define them in ISE, it would be good to be able to use the same identities also within Umbrella. It would simplify the use of multiple products within the organization from the same vendor.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using it for about three years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, Cisco Umbrella is pretty robust. The uptime statistics are very high. There are, generally, no issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Our organization isn't very large, but it's pretty scalable for larger organizations. At the moment, it's not a limiting factor.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is one of Cisco's strong suits. In my experience, the Umbrella team has been very quick to turn around requests. It's even been above average by Cisco's standard compared to the turnaround time for other Cisco solutions and products.
I would give Cisco's support a rating of nine on a scale from one to ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
We deployed it by configuring local devices to redirect the DNS request to the SAS service Umbrella provides.
The solution is cloud-based. You just send your DNS request or your traffic to it. You can start with a monitoring-only mode. So for example, you can redirect the DNS request and start observing what Umbrella recognizes. Later, you can start defining the policies, setting up the enforcements, etc. You can very quickly get to the first results.
What was our ROI?
Actual ROI numbers are really hard to measure and determine. Generally, we see that customers who implement Cisco Umbrella and start using it tend to renew their licenses. They adopt the product, and they recognize the value it brings. I think this shows that there was a return of investment for them and that it achieved the desired level.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing with Cisco can be a little complex, but I think it's comparable with that of other similar products. It's always hard to put a price on security, but the price is fair for the value it provides.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We're a Cisco partner, and we work with a lot of Cisco solutions. So, it was pretty easy for us to decide what we wanted to try and test. We didn't really do competitive selection and assessment, and it was pretty straightforward for us to go with Umbrella.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Cisco Umbrella at nine on a scale from one to ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Network Planning Associate at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Video Review
We can see all of our locations in one place and only have to make changes once for all our locations
Pros and Cons
- "Umbrella, being one pane for managing, being all-encompassing, allows us to quickly go in, make a change, and it applies to either every location, if we want it to, or we can have policies in place that only apply to certain users or certain computers."
- "Overall, as a program, it has saved us a ton of time and stress by not having to worry about malware or viruses or anything malicious."
- "In my experience with Umbrella support, sometimes the response times take a bit more time than we would like... sometimes, if you go through email, it can take quite a while to get a response."
- "In my experience with Umbrella support, sometimes the response times take a bit more time than we would like; sometimes, if you go through email, it can take quite a while to get a response."
What is our primary use case?
We're actually in the process of using this to replace our current web proxies. We use both, side-by-side, at the moment. The plan in the future is to eventually get those replaced with Umbrella so that we can have an overall, overarching proxy either that's based in the cloud or whatever we need. But this currently is our most convenient way of replacing web proxies across all of our locations at our company.
How has it helped my organization?
It's definitely made things more centralized. Our current setup is that we have proxies, either physical or virtual, throughout our different locations. Each location has its own proxy at the moment. What's nice about Umbrella is that we can just go into the site and see all of our locations in one place and look at all of our computers, users—everything. It's not divided into separate proxies that we have to go into and figure out which person's using which proxy. Umbrella lets us just see everybody at once, which is really handy for us, and we don't have to spend too much time messing around with figuring out who's where and which location needs this change. [We can just make] changes throughout every location at once, rather than one at a time with those proxies that we currently use.
The past couple of years, [the fact that the solution helps support hybrid work has been] especially important because now we can't use those proxies if people aren't onsite. The way our network was set up was that we had it filtering through the firewall and the firewall was taking certain subnets and filtering those through the proxy. But obviously, when people work from home, we had to get a VPN connection set up. Before COVID, we did not have a work-from-home solution at the time, so everybody had to be in the office. Obviously, that all changed very quickly and Umbrella became a much bigger priority for us because that was our main replacement for those proxies at the time.
We had to expedite the process of setting it up, but what was nice about Umbrella was that it was so user-friendly, it was so easy to set up on our end, that it didn't take as much time as we thought it would. It just simplified the entire process throughout the couple of years that we have especially needed it. But what's cool about that is that now, it's a permanent part of our network. Thanks to the last couple of years, we use it all the time now. It wasn't just a temporary solution for hybrid work because now we use it for both. We have the ability to do hybrid work, but we also have the ability to use it for our employees onsite as well.
[When it comes to threat remediation] most of it is automatic so we don't really have to worry about it too much. Umbrella will just block something if it detects it as malware. That is a super convenient feature for us, that we don't have to manually review every single site. If we do have to review a site, it's nice to have that investigative tool. We put in the URL and it gives us a risk score, depending on how dangerous that site might be. That's super helpful for us to analyze that site, take a look at it, and make a decision on whether we need to block it, or if it can be unblocked. Every situation is different, but Umbrella makes that summary page very convenient for us. It allows us to make decisions much faster and more efficiently.
Our cyber team is a bit different from our network team. We have a separate team for that, but it's nice because they also use Umbrella for a lot of that, depending on what the site is. We use the investigative tool for the risk score, but it also comes with a few other tools, and part of that is just so that they can assess what's safe and what's not safe and what might be detected as malware. Obviously, they have other tools for that as well, so Umbrella is just one cog in the big system. But it definitely allows for easier communication between our teams because we both use it and we can both understand it. It's user-friendly enough so that we can make decisions with them based on what Umbrella tells us and how we interpret that information depending on the site, the situation, the risk score, everything.
We have a lot of employees, a few tens of thousands. We get probably hundreds [of threats blocked] every day. I wouldn't be able to give an exact number on how many are blocked. The main ones we look at are the ones that people request us to specifically look at because they might not think that something was supposed to be blocked, or something is not working properly, and we can go in and investigate that. But there are probably hundreds to thousands of blocks per day on the sites, across all of our locations. That automation allows us to relax a little bit easier and know that our network is much safer with Umbrella on it than it is off. The automatic side of it is basically saving our jobs. That really helps, and we're able to look at anything. Overall, as a program, it has saved us a ton of time and stress by not having to worry about malware or viruses or anything malicious.
What is most valuable?
One of the coolest features, for me at least, is to be able to type in a website and have it give an overall summary of how safe that website appears. Part of that is just so that we can investigate. And if there's any sort of confusion between our cyber team and us, we can look further into that site and dive more into that risk score that Umbrella gives us. We can just analyze [those sites] and make sure that we're unblocking safe sites and blocking sites that we deem could be harmful for our employees.
I would say it provides single-pane-of-glass management. We still, of course, use those old WSAs, but in the long run, our plan is to get those replaced with Umbrella. We have locations in Japan, Korea, China. So it's a little bit more difficult to go through one proxy for all of those, especially because it's a bit slower. What's nice is, [with] Umbrella being in the cloud, we can just go into the site, see everything from the management console in that page. Nothing is slow [and] nothing is hosted by us so that we don't have to worry about network issues or management issues. Everything is just laid out right in front of us from the Umbrella dashboard on the internet, in the cloud. And that makes it super helpful for us to just manage all that from one spot across all of our locations across the world.
We aren't a very big team, so that's the main thing. Going through filtering web traffic or blocking sites or unblocking sites, whatever we need to do, can be a bit tedious, especially when we have all these different locations and we would have to go into each location specifically to perform these tasks. Umbrella, being one pane for managing, being all-encompassing, allows us to quickly go in, make a change, and it applies to either every location, if we want it to, or we can have policies in place that only apply to certain users or certain computers. And that makes it super useful for us because we're not messing around with jumping into all these different locations and manually doing each and every one individually. It is extremely helpful for us and it improves efficiency exponentially.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have personally been using Cisco Umbrella for almost a couple of years. Our company implemented it about five or six years ago. Most of that time was spent getting it set up, but we've really been using it more within the last two or three years now, so it's still pretty new to us at the moment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
[In terms of maintaining network connectivity] obviously it depends on the situation. With Umbrella, it's a bit easier, for sure. There are times where Umbrella, on their side, is having an issue and we're notified of that issue. But in that case, there isn't really much on our side that we can do. To that extent though, the pros outweigh the cons. It's pretty rare that Umbrella is having a problem. The way that our network is set up is that we can reroute traffic pretty quickly using our other Cisco devices, so it's not usually a big issue for us. We have fewer problems with Umbrella than we do with our physical WSA proxies that we currently use, because that is something that we would have to troubleshoot on our end, and we're not always there on site to be able to do that. Then we have to go through someone else who's over there and they have to console us in and we have to troubleshoot whatever's going on over there.
With Umbrella, it's nice to have them tell us what's going on so that we're aware of the situation. If there are any problems, then we'd know what the issue was and how we could work around it. That makes it a bit simpler for us.
Network connectivity isn't really a huge issue for us with Umbrella, specifically. Our use case mainly is just for blocking internet traffic, making groups. We have social media groups where we allow certain computers in places to have access to certain social media sites that we wouldn't normally do. We have other sites being blocked, depending on their use case. That's mainly our function with Umbrella. Internet connectivity is usually not a huge issue regarding Umbrella with us, but if it ever is, it's nice that they communicate the issue to us, [so] that we can work around it.
How are customer service and support?
In my experience with Umbrella support, sometimes the response times take a bit more time than we would like. Obviously, it depends on how they're contacted. But usually, when I contact them via phone, their support team is great. They help me out with everything. But sometimes, if you go through email, it can take quite a while to get a response. Obviously, if it's through email, the issue's probably not as pressing as it would be through a phone call, but the response times could be a little bit better. Email, I usually just avoid. I usually just call them now.
They're super helpful. In terms of response times, it could be a little bit better. Some issues are more urgent than others, but if it's an urgent issue, obviously we just call. Sometimes it takes a little bit [of time] for them to get back. I would probably rate them a seven out of ten.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
We've had to deploy connectors across certain locations, but [in] all the locations we have a domain controller and that needs to be deployed on those domain controllers throughout all of our different places. I've done a couple of deployments. Most of it was already deployed just by the time I got here.
[In] my experience of how deployment went, it was very easily laid out, very simple. The instructions were super clear. I didn't have any issues with that. As more of a newcomer to the entire industry, this has been much easier than I expected it to be. Umbrella, as a product, is very simply laid out, very user-friendly. I couldn't praise it enough for helping me out with my job.
While the support [can] sometimes take a while, overall they're super helpful, they make it very easy and they make you feel like you're not doing anything wrong. They're super friendly and make everything super easy for you. Umbrella as a product, overall, is very user-friendly, as a newcomer to my company.
What was our ROI?
The plan is to replace those physical proxies that we have. In terms of return on investment, getting rid of those across each location [has been valuable]. In terms of the efficiency with time, it's definitely saved us a lot of time and money troubleshooting different issues and securing the network and helping people access what they need to access. Just in terms of time and efficiency, it definitely has a return on investment.
Trying to replace those physical ones as well, getting rid of those, just having this be the all-encompassing way of filtering traffic and unblocking, of making policies, it definitely saves us a lot of time with the solution that's offered.
What other advice do I have?
In terms of [our employees] feeling supported, they have the ability to submit a request to us very easily. When they get blocked from a site, it's not just one page saying you're not allowed here. They have the ability to submit a request to us so that we can look further into that site. That makes our employees feel more included in the process of helping the company access the sites that it needs to use, [as does our] communicating with those employees [about] why a site might be blocked; or a site that needs to be blocked based on what they find and what they're doing for their job. The important thing is that they're able to talk to us in case there's a site that they think that they need to access and helps them feel included in the entire process.
Like I mentioned earlier, it's one cog in the big system that we have out of our solutions for cybersecurity. We also use products like AMP, we have certain firewalls that also block certain things, the way they're configured. But overall, Umbrella, if we're talking about users on the internet, using sites or accessing different websites, is a big help in determining what exactly they need. We can go into Umbrella and help them understand why something might be blocked, or if they need to get into something, we can make certain policies within Umbrella. It's obviously just one tool out of the many that we have, so these configurations are pretty involved and even I don't know how they all work. It's divided amongst our team. For cybersecurity in general, it's great. It simplifies it. It's very useful in terms of the automation and how it blocks everything, and how all that stuff is interconnected. I would say that it is a lifesaver for us.
As somebody who is pretty familiar with networks and just learning everything, but being an inexperienced network manager, I would say that it makes the entire process very painless, very super simple to understand. In my experience, it's a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Engineer at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Gives us control and visibility of our network
Pros and Cons
- "It has excellent resilience in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity for my organization is very important because we are a banking organization. We need this security to protect the personal information of our clients. This is very important for our security."
- "The solution is very good for helping workers feel safe, secured, supported, and included."
- "I feel that the application needs other characteristics that are available with other applications in the market."
- "I feel that the application needs other characteristics that are available with other applications in the market."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is for filtering web content. We can control user access to applications as well as have visibility into Internet usage.
We are using it on approximately 300 servers. The solution is deployed across three departments. There are about 8,000 users.
How has it helped my organization?
Umbrella gives us control and visibility of our network using administration tools. This is helpful for us.
The solution is very good for helping workers feel safe, secured, supported, and included.
Employees have accepted the solution. The solution is very good for them and their morale.
It has excellent resilience in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity for my organization is very important because we are a banking organization. We need this security to protect the personal information of our clients. This is very important for our security.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is its web content filtering.
It is very important for our organization that the solution offers single-pane-of-glass management.
It is very easy to maintain network connectivity.
The customer experience has been very good.
What needs improvement?
I feel that the application needs other characteristics that are available with other applications in the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It works very well across platforms with other providers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very easy to scale.
How are customer service and support?
I have never needed to use their technical support.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have just used this solution.
How was the initial setup?
Our initial setup was very easy.
What about the implementation team?
We used an internal consultant.
What other advice do I have?
Our leaders say that cybersecurity and resilience for our services is very important. They say technology is necessary for developing business with our clients.
I would rate the solution as nine out of 10. The solution is very good, easy to implement, and manage. The visibility is very user-friendly.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Network Engineer at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
We feel more confident knowing that we can block phishing attempts or any type of malware that is DNS-related
Pros and Cons
- "It has improved our organization from a security posture perspective. We feel more confident now knowing that we can block phishing attempts or any type of malware that is DNS-related. This is a very nice feature that provides peace of mind."
- "It has improved our organization from a security posture perspective, and we feel more confident now knowing that we can block phishing attempts or any type of malware that is DNS-related, which is a very nice feature that provides peace of mind."
- "We would like them to add more features to Cisco Umbrella."
- "We would like them to add more features to Cisco Umbrella."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco Umbrella for DNS security. We also have the roaming clients deployed on user laptops.
We use it for roaming clients. We also push all our DNS traffic to Umbrella. We do not allow any other DNS traffic. That is kind of how we have fully implemented Umbrella.
We were looking to bridge the gap for DNS security, especially for mobile clients. We wanted to be able to put that roaming client on their PCs and kind of bring that together.
How has it helped my organization?
It has improved our organization from a security posture perspective. We feel more confident now knowing that we can block phishing attempts or any type of malware that is DNS-related. This is a very nice feature that provides peace of mind.
Umbrella has absolutely helped us remediate threats more quickly. In fact, it has blocked a lot of threats that may have been able to go through in some instances. Knowing that they are blocking it and being able to find the PC that potentially has the threat on it, that has been very beneficial.
Umbrella has been very good for employee morale. It makes our job a little bit easier.
Cybersecurity resilience is very important for our organization right now. Umbrella does a good job of blocking ransomware, malware, bad threat actors, and phishing attempts.
What is most valuable?
Being able to control policy sets has been a very nice feature. Being able to have appliances that are separate, where we can send DNS traffic, has been very beneficial as well.
It is a good product for helping workers feel safe, secure, supported, and included. Having the roaming client is probably one of the key factors in being able to do that.
Cisco Umbrella provides single-pane-of-glass management, which is pretty important for my organization. We have a lot of products, including security products, that we manage. Being able to see a lot of those data sets in a single pane of glass is very beneficial for my team. We enjoy having it. It is very easy to use.
It is not very difficult to maintain network connectivity.
What needs improvement?
We would like them to add more features to Cisco Umbrella.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Umbrella for about four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability has been great. Obviously, there have been some hiccups here and there on the connectivity side. That is out of our control, but it is understandable, as things are in the cloud. I have had more issues with Amazon than I have had issues with Umbrella, where I have had a very good experience.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is very scalable. If I had more sites, all I would have to do is deploy more VMs and point traffic that way, which is very nice.
We are using roaming clients. We are also using the DNS appliances that we have deployed. I have over 15,000 users and 10 locations. We have deployed each appliance at every location, and then point traffic to that. There are 20 different servers that we are using for Umbrella.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support has been very good. I have not had to open many tickets. I have only opened two in the five years that we have had it. Those two times, the support was very nice and supportive. I would rate them as 10 out of 10.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have actually been using Umbrella since it came out. Previously, we just ran our own DNS. From a security product perspective, Umbrella has been the only DNS solution that we've used.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. There is a lot of documentation available.
What about the implementation team?
It was deployed in-house.
What was our ROI?
We have seen ROI. We can show our leadership that we are blocking and preventing things from coming into our network. Not only that, but from a threat perspective, if any of those things were able to infiltrate, then possibly the remediation damages would be way more than the cost that I am paying for Umbrella today.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
As an educational partner, we get better licensing structures. We are very happy with that. It has been very nice that Cisco has partnered with the educational sector to bring that.
What other advice do I have?
Look for all the gaps that you have in your network, then try to find a product that is more rounded to essentially fill those gaps.
I would rate Umbrella as 10 out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Updated: March 2026
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