We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Cisco Secure Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
"The solution is very easy to understand. It's not overly complex."
"The CLI is robust and powerful, enabling rapid, consistent changes via SSH."
"We use a lot of function on the IPS and it works well for us."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"The solution is very user friendly. The user interface in particular is quite nice."
"Its performance in fulfilling our requirements has been satisfactory."
"It's user-friendly and easy to operate."
"The SD-WAN feature is the most valuable. This feature evolved from link load balancing. It has helped us in terms of our uptime and privatizing applications whenever we experience an outage. The SD-WAN feature has been a plus for us. Two-factor authentication has allowed us to add more users in terms of remote working. We have two-factor authentication for remote workers to authenticate them before they get on the network."
"What I have used the most and received the most benefit from is the IPsec technology."
"The most valuable features of Cisco IOS Security are the plenty of functionality it provides, many people are IT certified the usage, and the user interface is good."
"The VPN is the most valuable feature."
"It is less expensive than alternative firewalls."
"The VPN was valuable for us because more people are working from home. It has a lot of reporting and easy-to-use management tools."
"The solution effectively integrates with Umbrella."
"I've found their network routing to be very good."
"You can scale it when you need to."
"I like the way Firepower presents the data. It gives you two classifications for the evidence, something based on the priority of the evidence and another classification based on the impact of the evidence in your environment. This makes it very easy to spot the evidence that is most impactful to my environment. Instead of having to go through all the evidence based on that priority, I can focus on the evidence that has the most impact on my environment."
"You can also put everything into a nice, neat, little package, as far as configuration goes. I was formerly a command-line guy with the ASA, and I was a little nervous about dealing with a GUI interface versus a command line, but after I did my first deployment, I got a lot more comfortable with doing it GUI based."
"VPN, firewall, and IDS/IPS allow us to deliver services to meet client needs across various industry verticals."
"The most important feature is the intensive way you can troubleshoot Cisco Firepower Firewalls. You can go to the bit level to see why traffic is not handled in the correct way, and the majority of the time it's a networking issue and not a firewall issue. You can solve any problem without Cisco TAC help, because you can go very deeply under the hood to find out how traffic is flowing and whether it is not flowing as expected. That is something I have never seen with other brands."
"Filtering is the best feature."
"Cisco ASA provides us with very good application visibility and control."
"With Cisco, there are a lot of features such as the network map. Cisco builds the whole network map of the machines you have behind your firewall and gives you insight into the vulnerabilities and attributes that the host has. Checkpoint and Fortinet don't have that functionality directly on the firewall."
"All the rules are secure and we haven't had a significant malware attack in the five years that we've been using ASA Firewall. It has been a tremendous improvement for our network. However, I can't quantify the benefits in monetary terms."
"Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve to be on par with its competitors, such as Palo Alto and Sophos. They are the market leaders. Fortinet FortiGate needs to improve its capabilities. However, we are happy with Fortinet FortiGate."
"The solution could be more secure and stable."
"Some configuration elements cannot be easily altered once created."
"In the next release, maybe the documentation on how to use this solution could be improved."
"It does not have key authentication for admin access."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"The product does need better support in the cloud environment. It's not exactly cloud-native right now."
"They've become quite expensive."
"The configuration should be easier in the solution."
"In the security portfolio from Cisco, the issue is marketing. Cisco is still seen primarily as an enterprise network player rather than being acknowledged as a security vendor."
"The solution is complex and can be more user-friendly."
"The routers, don't have like long-term tendency features, or higher availability features available for the IOS. It could also use a better user interface."
"Cisco is a scalable product, but it is expensive compared to other vendors."
"We need to pay for the license and it is expensive."
"Cisco IOS Security could improve by having more compatibility with other Cisco solutions."
"The graphical user interface or the GUI could be better. Beginners can use some devices with the GUI, but some security devices are configured using CLI. It would also be better if it had its own Intrusion Protection Service and Intrusion Detection Service on the server."
"I needed to be well-versed with all the command lines for Cisco ASA in order to fully utilize it. I missed this info and wasted some operational costs."
"The only improvement that we could make is maybe [regarding] the roadmap, to have better visibility as to what we are targeting ahead in the next few quarters."
"One thing that Cisco could improve is the GUI. The graphic user interface should be more user-friendly."
"I would like to see them update the GUI so that it doesn't look like it was made in 1995."
"Integration aspects and traffic shaping need improvement."
"We have more than one Cisco firewall and it is difficult for me to integrate both on the single UI."
"It's not unexpected, but it's a common scenario where customers request dual layers of security. For instance, when dealing with regulatory compliance, especially in financial sectors regulated by entities like the Central Bank, having two distinct units is often mandated. If a client predominantly uses a solution like Palo Alto, they may need to incorporate another vendor such as Cisco or Forti. Importantly, there's a significant disparity in interfaces and management platforms between these vendors, necessitating careful consideration when integrating them into the overall security architecture"
"The product's user interface is an area with certain shortcomings where improvements are required."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB, whereas Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Cisco Secure Firewall report.
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