We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and WatchGuard Firebox 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 is very scalable to serve our customers' needs. We have scaled already from fifty to more than a hundred instances of Fortinet FortiGate. Around 20 staff are required for deployment and maintenance, mostly engineers."
"The usage in general is pretty good."
"The response is very quick and they can visually resolve our problems in a short period."
"It is easy to manage, and it doesn't need much knowledge from the team. It is a stable device, and there are many features that are included out of the box."
"I like several features that this product has, such as antivirus and internet navigation inspection. It is also simple to use."
"It is easy to use and performs very well."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."
"Some of the valuable features are the firewall, IPS, web filter, and gateway capabilities. Additionally, it is easy to use and flexible."
"What I have used the most and received the most benefit from is the IPsec technology."
"The security is very good."
"Cisco has always been a premium product. There's a lot of other entry-level solutions. This is more robust."
"The product is easy to use."
"Cisco IOS Security has many good features, but compared to other solutions, it has a more user-friendly interface with steps to apply and manage rules. Another good part of the solution is that it's more straightforward."
"Cisco products are very secure and integrate easily with other devices."
"Previously, anyone in the organization would see any data point in the wall. They could just go and connect their machine with that data point and could access the network. But now, even if someone came and tried that, they will not be given access."
"It covers everything we need it to without looking to secondary solutions."
"If there is any conflict, the reporting feature will kick out all types of information, which is great."
"The security that is used for defending from the attacks is very good."
"After conducting several tests I found the antivirus is working very well. Additionally, they have a very interesting feature, DNS WatchGuard, which is checking DNS requests for phishing, among other things, and it has caught a lot of unwanted attempts and attacks."
"Their support is excellent, and the stability is very good."
"The most valuable feature is the ease of use of the interface."
"One of the most valuable features is the Geolocation. Because we aren't a multinational corporation, it allows me to look at things which might be suspicious to make sure that they are legitimate transactions rather than people sniffing around the network."
"The most valuable features of the WatchGuard Firebox are all the security and updated features. You are able to configure the solution from the cloud platform and the application and web interface are very nice."
"The solution simplifies my business. Normally, for administration, we are using NetApp System Manager on Window since it's easy to create new policies. In a short amount of time, you can create new policies based on new requirements. For example, in the last few months, many requirements changed due to the coronavirus, adding the use of new services, like Office 365, and eLearning tools, like Zoom."
"They should offer special pricing to premium partners and customers."
"It should provide better visibility over the network and more information in the form of reports for the end users. Its installation should also be easier."
"We would like to have the ability to disable some of the security functionalities."
"There are just some services that aren't available. For example, the Ethernet or point-to-point protocols. They could add these services to their product offering - especially services for ISPs."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve the integration with Active Directory. Additionally, I would like to have a Cloud Controller, such as they do in the Cisco Meraki solution."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"There are problems with the custom reporting of the unique traffic. The data is there, but it is too difficult for us to extract."
"Currently, FortiGate is providing SSL VPN. But they're missing some features that are available in Palo Alto's SSL VPN."
"We have a very bad experience on the support. They take too much time requesting logs, and they are not coming directly online to resolve the issues."
"The solution is not user friendly and it is hard to manage the GUI interface."
"I would like to see much more embedded security that works and that isn't a bolt-on."
"The pricing is the only con for this product."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"I wish it would be more like the next generation firewall technology. There should be more selection between the application and filtering."
"Sometimes I find it difficult to manage. Some configurations are difficult for new engineers, for example."
"Cisco IOS Security could improve by having more compatibility with other Cisco solutions."
"We would like to see granular notification settings and more advanced filtering in traffic monitoring."
"Make WatchGuard Firebox capable of integrating with third-party vendors like FireMon, Splunk, Tenable, etc."
"The software in it could be a bit more friendly for an amateur user. I look at it and don't understand what half the stuff is. Looking at the interface, it is all mumbo-jumbo to me. It's not a simple interface. You have to be an IT guy to understand it. It is not for your average person to use, then walk away from it. It is much more entailed."
"The pricing could be improved. It is definitely one of the more expensive products."
"I believe there is a need for additional measures to connect mobile devices securely to the Firebox router."
"I would like to have a little more control over access points and the ability to see the bandwidth that is passing through a specific access point. We are not able to see that. We can see what traffic is passing through the Firebox itself, but we can't identify if it is coming from a particular access point or not."
"Once you start getting into proxy actions and setting up: "Okay, cool. Once this rule gets triggered, what actions have to happen?" I do know a few people who use WatchGuard and they still have to get assistance when they look at that. So I would file that as a con for WatchGuard. Proxy actions can be a little bit complicated."
"There is a slight learning curve."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while WatchGuard Firebox is ranked 13th in Firewalls with 78 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while WatchGuard Firebox 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 WatchGuard Firebox writes "Offers a streamlined deployment, intuitive interface and robust security features". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense and OPNsense, whereas WatchGuard Firebox is most compared with Netgate pfSense, Sophos XG, OPNsense, SonicWall TZ and Meraki MX. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. WatchGuard Firebox report.
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