We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Palo Alto Networks VM-Series 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."FortiGate firewalls are user-friendly, and I like the security profiling features."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."
"The most important features of Fortinet FortiGate are the Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) and firewall control applications."
"I like Fortinet's cloud management. It allows me to manage all my devices in different branches for three cloud accounts. Even though I use on-prem devices, I can manage everything on the cloud."
"The application control features, such as Facebook blocking and Spotify blocking, are the most valuable."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is URL filtering."
"It performs very well."
"One of the valuable features is a standardized OS."
"I'm able to transfer data over internet network security. With the GRE I'm able to transfer data within one bunch to another bunch in a public way, like the internet. The communication is encrypted and is private. It gives me added privacy."
"We use Cisco IOS Security mostly for routers to route off the firewall. It's a next-generation device."
"The solution is stable."
"The most valuable feature is the scalability. The nice thing with the bigger vendors is that they're very good at scale."
"In Pakistan, we only use Cisco because they have good local support infrastructure. Huawei and Fortinet don't offer direct support in Pakistan."
"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 solution effectively integrates with Umbrella."
"Cisco IOS Security is a mature product with extensive capabilities, serving as the base for the defense layer. It offers good network visibility, which helps in rapid response through the Rapid Threat Containment feature. Its deployment and configuration are straightforward."
"The solution strengthens our IT posture."
"A solid operating system with all the necessary data center security features."
"The most effective features for threat prevention are application-based prevention and WildFire. These features cover various threats, such as ransomware, malware, etc. They provide real-time visibility. By applying appropriate policies, threats can be blocked."
"The most valuable features are web control and IPS/IDS."
"It is an easy-to-scale product."
"The solution enables organizations to enforce policies."
"The most valuable feature is that you can control your traffic flowing out and coming it, allowing you to apply malware and threat protection, as well as vulnerability checks."
"I have not actually called their support line, because we have a direct contact to a senior engineer in the company for any issues that we handle with them. I will say they are very responsive, and they do give you the information you need when you need it."
"Fortinet FortiGate could improve by adding FortiAnalyzer to its solution, we should not have to use another solution. FortiAnalyzer can provide more detailed information."
"In the next release, I would like to see the interface simplified to be more user-friendly."
"Its filtering is sometimes too precise or strict. We sometimes have to bypass and authorize some of the sites, but they get blocked. We know that they are trusted sites, but they are blocked, and we don't know why."
"Fortinet FortiGate is a firewall solution and once it's deployed, you can rest assured that your system is secure."
"Reporting is limited to providing an external appliance for improving the reporting capabilities of the FortiAnalyzer. It does not offer a central management and is also sold separably as an appliance."
"The support team for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be more customer friendly."
"It would be a benefit if Fortinet would release a one-stop solution that is better integrated with other products and an automated emergency response system."
"The customization could be improved. Cisco, for example, is much better at this. They need to work to be at least as good as they are."
"If they could increase the performance a little better because the device sometimes gets slow."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"We cannot directly upgrade the system. The tool's deployment is also very difficult in legacy environments. The tool needs to have bigger ports as well."
"The initial setup is complicated."
"Signatures and other critical definitions need to be updated more frequently."
"I would like upgrading iOS to be a bit easier."
"Cisco IOS Security should improve its functionalities."
"It takes too much time to deploy a policy to FMC. It takes around eight minutes. You can't afford any downtime when you're changing policies."
"The solution needs to improve its visibility. It's not straightforward to use. Understanding the policies, authorizations, and initializing features requires careful review. The product needs to offer proper training."
"The utilization monitoring and GUI have room for improvement."
"I would like to see a more thorough QA process. We have had some difficulties from bugs in releases."
"The solution must improve Zero Trust integration and use cases."
"We have run into some issues with scaling and limitations associated with some of the configurations."
"The disadvantage with Palo Alto is that they don't have a cloud-based solution that includes a secure web gateway."
"In the next release, I would like to see better integration of multi-factor authentication vendors."
"Palo Alto should update their documentation to make it more readable and provide easier-to-follow instructions through videos."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is ranked 10th in Firewalls with 52 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is rated 8.6. 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 Palo Alto Networks VM-Series writes "Many features are optimized for troubleshooting real-time scenarios, saving a lot of time". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense and OPNsense, whereas Palo Alto Networks VM-Series is most compared with Azure Firewall, Fortinet FortiGate-VM, Cisco Secure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls and Juniper SRX Series Firewall. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Palo Alto Networks VM-Series report.
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