Cisco Secure Access vs Prisma SD-WAN comparison

Cisco and Palo Alto Networks are both solutions in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category. Cisco is ranked #16 with an average rating of 9.0, while Palo Alto Networks is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.6. Cisco holds a 3.3% mindshare in SASE, compared to Palo Alto Networks’s 2.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Palo Alto Networks users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 6, 2024

Prisma SD-WAN and Cisco Secure Access are prominent in network management and security. Prisma SD-WAN seems to have an advantage in pricing and simplicity, while Cisco Secure Access excels in comprehensive features and security.

Features: Prisma SD-WAN is praised for its intuitive setup, scalability, and user-friendly interface, which is particularly effective for businesses with changing network needs. Cisco Secure Access offers advanced security features, extensive integration capabilities, and a broad feature set, making it suitable for enterprises focused on robust security solutions.

Room for Improvement: Prisma SD-WAN could enhance its advanced security features, improve its threat protection, and expand reporting capabilities. Cisco Secure Access users suggest simplifying configurations, improving ease of use, and refining the management of complex network setups to enhance user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Prisma SD-WAN is noted for its straightforward deployment and responsive support, beneficial for organizations with limited IT resources. Cisco Secure Access, while offering structured deployment models for complex networking, requires more initial setup effort but benefits from robust support mechanisms.

Pricing and ROI: Prisma SD-WAN is recognized for an accessible pricing structure, delivering favorable ROI to mid-sized businesses. Cisco Secure Access involves higher costs but offers substantial security and feature benefits, often seen as worth the investment by larger organizations prioritizing security and compliance.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Access vs. Prisma SD-WAN Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Access vs. Prisma SD-WAN

April 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

iboss

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) category, the mindshare of iboss is 1.7%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Access is 3.3%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Prisma SD-WAN is 2.1%, down from 2.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

Featured Reviews

Matt Crockford

Head of Cybersecurity at SES Water

It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless

One aspect we value about iboss is its simplicity. Their customer service is brilliant, and they are super responsive and knowledgeable. It's easy to roll out, and their understanding of our business made it seamless. We were impressed by the solution's mental health function, which can detect if someone needs help. It scans what users are browsing and flags warning signs so we can check to see if they are okay. We've had to use it a couple of times. The user interface is highly intuitive. Our IT team picked it up with minimal training. It's arranged so that it's easy to find where things are. Another advantage is the single pane of glass console, which gives you visibility into what's happening. We're not fully there yet because we haven't implemented zero trust, but we're excited about the possibilities from the demos we've seen. We launched a POC of iboss' ChatGPT Risk Protection feature two weeks ago. AI is a great tool, but you need to be careful what you put into it. My biggest fear is employees inputting sensitive corporate information or customer PII data into one of these chatbots. I was impressed by our trial of the feature. It's exactly what we wanted. Now, when a user goes to ChatGPT, there's a banner warning them not to share information, and we can block conversations containing customer data like bank details and email addresses. I don't want to stop people from using it, but we need visibility. We've only tried it on a test group of 15 people. You can configure it to look for specific keywords or integrate it with your DLP policy if you have that configured

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Aruna Udawatte

Director -Digital Transformation at Convergence

Maintaining top security with comprehensive updates and support

The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Access is the level of security it provides. Cisco's dedication to the security industry is evident with how it remains up-to-date on current situations and recent attacks. Updates are frequent, and firmware upgrades are delivered promptly. It is very easy to stay updated, which is crucial for maintaining security.

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Engineerinfosec67

Senior Information Security Engineer at Westcon-Comstor

Centralized management streamlines global network traffic control

Prisma SD-WAN requires a more seamless integration with other Palo Alto solutions, like Prisma Access. Although there has been improvement, further steps can be taken. Additionally, it would be beneficial if the solution integrated the SD-WAN features of Prisma SD-WAN with the security features of Palo Alto's next-generation firewalls, as they currently do not align.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"Granular setup, which was able to set different levels of filters using the OUs in the AD."

"First of all, the security policies are essential. I do not have to rely solely on Active Directory for our users."

"iboss is among the few products providing inline filtering where no application is needed on the device. It operates on the network side and is not device-based. This feature was one of the main reasons why we stayed with them for so long."

"It was a very easy product to install. It can be deployed very fast."

"iboss is pretty scalable. They provide good support. The case managers you work with to coordinate what you need are pretty good."

"Iboss is a solution that prevents advanced persistent threats, and has a zero tolerance for attacks."

"I would definitely recommend iboss for web filtering purposes to other organizations or individuals."

"The solution has massively improved our security posture, giving us full visibility into what our staff does online."

More iboss pros

"The main feature of interest to me and the customers is DNS security and Integrated Secure Web Control (ISWC)."

"I rate the stability of Cisco Secure Access as ten out of ten."

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Access is the level of security it provides."

"I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten."

"I use this solution for securing security controls like Secure Security Control (SSC) for local Internet breakouts."

"The most valuable feature is the authentication feature."

"Prisma supports all of the applications we're currently using."

"Overall, I would rate Prisma SD-WAN an eight out of ten."

"The gateway is available on the cloud which allows you access from anywhere and still connects to your home gateway."

"Prisma SD-WAN is intuitive. We have a better idea of the different tools we can use and jump between the menus quickly."

"The dynamic routing in Prisma SD-WAN is high-speed and valuable because it quickly adjusts, so users do not realize the link is down."

"Prisma's analytics provide a lot of valuable data. I like the internet health chart that shows latency, dropped packets, MOS for data quality, etc. It also runs a continuous speed test in the background. I've used it multiple times to troubleshoot internet connections when the service provider has attempted to claim nothing is wrong with the circuit. It gives me data to send them showing we're not getting the speed we should, or there is constant packet loss."

"Prisma SD-WAN is recommended due to its comprehensive capabilities."

"I like the link monitoring and analytics. These are the features that set Prisma apart from other products. Prisma works well with large, complex networks. One of my clients is a top bank in the United States, and Prisma has performed well for that customer."

More Prisma SD-WAN pros

Cons

"File integrity monitoring would be very advantageous as an additional feature."

"Our iboss subscription access should be more secure with an OTP or VPN etc. It is easy to gain access if, for example, hackers obtain my username and password."

"The dashboards for local use could be better."

"Sometimes the agent stops working in iboss, and we have to reinstall the agent."

"I am currently doing a PoC of the zero trust aspect of it. Compared to other similar solutions, it is hard to get around each feature. It takes a while to get used to it."

"If they could implement an extra security layer preventing access to iboss from the open internet, it would be great."

"Its pricing could be better."

"SSL decryption: We had issues with learners using apps instead of using web browsers. This type of encryption is tough for any appliance in a BYOD environment."

More iboss cons

"It is expensive."

"I received support from the team for Cisco Secure Access related to web services. There were occasional delays of up to two working days."

"Cisco is not well accepted in the market since they are somewhat behind their competitors."

"Having been associated with Cisco for more than fifteen to twenty years, I find it increasingly difficult to get tech support these days. Although Cisco is reliable, the process to raise a support ticket has become more complex, requiring specific user accounts and access to specialized platforms."

"The main issue with pricing is that it is higher compared to other competitors, making it challenging to work with customers unless they specifically request Cisco."

"There is a need for improved global coverage since the service relies on the cloud provider's data centers."

"The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides."

"Accessibility could be improved. Any new person attempting to access Prisma will have difficulty. It doesn't have CLI available."

"I would also like to see improvement in the product training for customers. Palo Alto has not initiated very much training but they have to do so because this is a new product. If you have experience in a legacy environment, and you are moving to Prisma SD-WAN, you don't have a training framework. That is one of the disadvantages."

"There are two parallel things that we want Palo Alto to work on. First, customers want a unified appliance that does the work of all firewalls in addition to SD-WAN. Second, the cloud presence should be completely automated. If I purchase the SASE architecture, I shouldn't worry about deployments in Prisma Access or on Prisma SD-WAN. It should be deployed in one go."

"We are incorporating their zone-based firewalls. Prisma SD-WAN has limited documentation on how it manipulates traffic, e.g., how it is interacting with TCP and UDP. We recently had some traffic that was black holing. We literally had to do packet captures to see that the new zone-based firewall, which runs on top of Prisma SD-WAN, was causing issues."

"Sometimes, during the product's initial setup phase, bypass pair or couple ports don't come up normally, and it requires an hour and a half to troubleshoot to reset the box from Prisma SD-WAN to factory default."

"Event correlation and analysis capabilities do not help minimize the number of alarms from a single event. That is the problem. We are getting a lot of incidents, and there is some issue with the correlation. That is still a drawback."

"Prisma SD-WAN can be built on top of a couple of hardware platforms, including the Palo Alto Next-Generation Firewall or the CloudGenix infrastructure."

More Prisma SD-WAN cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is expensive compared to one of its competitors."

"We had the cost of purchasing a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs. However, the following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs."

"The overall pricing for iboss is very competitive and transparent."

"It is probably in line with other solutions, but I do not deal with the financial side."

"We have not priced the solution recently, but they were competitive with other vendors in the past."

"It is not expensive, and it is also not cheap. iboss is priced right in the sweet spot for the number of features it offers."

Information not available

"If you're already invested in a Palo Alto product, it would be logical to use this solution. If not, there might be some other solutions that are more viable in terms of pricing."

"It is more expensive than Fortinet."

"Prisma SD-WAN is a pretty expensive solution."

"On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten."

"This solution stood out because it cost considerably less than the other SD-WAN solutions out there from Cisco."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Government

Computer Software Company

16%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Construction Company

Financial Services Firm

Educational Organization

22%

Computer Software Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about iboss?

Content filtering is the most useful feature of iboss.

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What needs improvement with iboss?

Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device and filtering did not always work correctl...

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What is your primary use case for iboss?

We used it for student and faculty filtering on campus.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Access?

Cisco is known for being a premium product, and its pricing reflects this. Although competitive, a more flexible pric...

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What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Access?

Our primary use case for Cisco Secure Access ( /products/cisco-secure-access-reviews ) is seamless connectivity for u...

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What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Secure Access?

In terms of overall rating, I give Cisco Secure Access a nine. I would definitely recommend it to other users.

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What do you like most about Prisma SD-WAN?

The product's initial setup phase is straightforward.

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Prisma SD-WAN?

The product could be a bit cheaper for the services it provides.

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What needs improvement with Prisma SD-WAN?

I think the product could be a bit cheaper, but otherwise, I am satisfied with it.

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 20% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

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Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudflare One vs iboss

Compared 10% of the time

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Cisco Umbrella vs Cisco Secure Access

Compared 61% of the time

Netskope vs Cisco Secure Access

Compared 17% of the time

FortiSASE vs Cisco Secure Access

Compared 12% of the time

Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Cisco Secure Access

Compared 7% of the time

Cato SASE Cloud Platform vs Cisco Secure Access

Compared 3% of the time

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Prisma Access by Palo Alto Networks vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

Cisco Catalyst SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 21% of the time

Fortinet FortiGate vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 17% of the time

Meraki SD-WAN vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 15% of the time

Aruba EdgeConnect SD-WAN Platform vs Prisma SD-WAN

Compared 10% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

iboss

April 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Secure Access Service Edge (SASE)

April 2025

Download Cisco Secure Access product report

Buyer's Guide

Prisma SD-WAN

April 2025

Download Prisma SD-WAN product report

Also Known As

iBoss Cloud Platform

No data available

CloudGenix

Overview

iboss offers a comprehensive security platform designed for diverse use cases such as web filtering, data loss protection, corporate proxy services, and URL filtering.

iboss integrates advanced features to address dynamic security needs, leveraging its strength in SASE, ZTNA, AI initiatives, and cloud integration, while ensuring seamless operations for remote work. It excels in historical forensics, malware protection, and flexible cloud deployments. Users benefit from comprehensive traffic scanning, robust malware detection, and PaaS capabilities that reduce hardware management. An intuitive admin console ensures efficient management with content filtering and low false positives. SSL decryption enhances security, while DLP protects data in AI conversations. Deployment is rapid and scalable, allowing effortless integration with emerging technologies.

What features does iboss offer?

Granular Web Filtering: Provides precise control over web content access.
Traffic Scanning: Monitors data through multiple ports for security breaches.
Malware Detection: Ensures superior protection against malware threats.
PaaS Capabilities: Eliminates need for hardware management.
SSL Decryption: Enhances data protection by decrypting secure connections.
DLP Capabilities: Safeguards data during AI interactions.

What benefits and ROI should users consider?

Scalability: Adapts quickly to growing demands and emerging tech integration.
Rapid Deployment: Reduces time to implement security measures.
User-Friendly Admin Console: Facilitates efficient operations management.
Low False Positives: Increases accuracy of threat detection systems.

iboss finds significant application in sectors such as education, where web filtering for K-12 is crucial, and in corporate environments requiring robust proxy services and URL filtering for network security. Its adaptability is essential in scenarios demanding flexible, decentralized security frameworks, particularly for remote work setups.

iboss

Cisco Secure Access is a comprehensive solution that ensures secure access to networks and protects against unauthorized access. It is used for network authentication, enforcing access policies, managing user identities, securing remote access, and providing secure connectivity for devices. Users have praised its robust security measures, seamless integration with existing systems, user-friendly interface, and reliable network performance.

Cisco

Simplify management, enable app-defined SD-WAN policies and deliver a secure, cloud-delivered branch today with the Industry’s first next-generation SD-WAN.

Palo Alto Networks

Sample Customers

More than 4,000 global enterprises trust the iboss Cloud Platform to support their modern workforces, including a large number of Fortune 50 companies.

1. IBM 2. Microsoft 3. Amazon 4. Google 5. Apple 6. Cisco Systems 7. Oracle 8. Intel 9. HP Inc. 10. Dell Technologies 11. Verizon Communications 12. AT&T 13. Comcast 14. T-Mobile 15. Sprint 16. Vodafone 17. Orange 18. BT Group 19. Deutsche Telekom 20. Telefonica 21. Nokia 22. Ericsson 23. Samsung Electronics 24. Sony 25. Panasonic 26. LG Electronics 27. Siemens 28. General Electric 29. Ford Motor Company 30. General Motors 31. Toyota Motor Corporation 32. Volkswagen Group

Open Networking User Group, Columbia Sportswear Company, Coca Cola

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Access vs. Prisma SD-WAN

April 2025

Free Report: Cisco Secure Access vs. Prisma SD-WAN

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