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Cisco Secure Access vs Symantec CloudSOC CASB comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

Cisco Secure Access
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
3rd
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.4
Number of Reviews
72
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (4th), Firewalls (9th), ZTNA (6th), Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) (3rd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (2nd)
Symantec CloudSOC CASB
Ranking in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
19th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2026, in the Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Access is 5.1%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Symantec CloudSOC CASB is 1.4%, up from 0.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Access5.1%
Symantec CloudSOC CASB1.4%
Other93.5%
Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB)
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Secure access has unified zero trust and web protection while AI assistance automates tasks
From a feature perspective, I have not experienced any issues, drawbacks, or shortcomings. However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high. My clients usually prefer cheaper options if possible. Mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access. Additionally, there is a steep learning curve, as it is very intensive. Someone with significant knowledge can work on it, but a new professional would have to spend considerable time to get accustomed to it. It is hard to find engineers who can work on it. Overall, we get what we pay for, as it is a pretty good feature and service. The pricing of Cisco's products and licensing is higher than competitors. If they could be more reasonable, that would help. The support offered for two years also has higher costs. Overall, the client's IT budget gets affected. It was challenging to learn because, as mentioned, it has a significant learning curve and requires considerable training to become proficient.
cto543714 - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Works very well in a hybrid environment in terms of DLP policies, but trying to do your own troubleshooting can be a little bit difficult
It does scale. They have different data centers spread out for you to do things. It scales just fine, but it is the setup and configuration that you have to do in order for it to scale the way you want it to. I know that some of the newer technologies, such as Zscaler, are doing SD-LAN type connections and things of that sort to improve performance and scalability. So, things are still evolving in terms of scalability. Depending on how you deployed it, you can run into some performance gotchas. If you take a VPN connection and try to overtax it, you can run into problems. You can't say that it didn't scale. You have to use a different method to get the traffic, or you may have to set up two VPN tunnels or things of that sort. So, if you want it to scale, you have to think it through and make sure you are deploying it in a manner to scale. It can scale, but you have to plan it and make sure you think everything through.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature of Cisco Secure Access is the secure web gateway, which provides the secure edge."
"I would say that over the last 15 years, Cisco Secure Access is the best solution for remote access because I work with other companies as well, but Cisco Secure Access is the best one."
"The firewall section for IDP is the most used for remote sites. It fits better with all the data we're collecting from the protection site and the information that we provide to another customer."
"Overall, Cisco Secure Access has been a valuable component of our security strategy."
"Using the VPN SaaS in Cisco has influenced us greatly because it gives you a seamless transition from your legacy systems to this new system that is available, so the transition has been seamless."
"The feature of Cisco Secure Access I appreciate the most is the DNS functionality."
"I find Cisco Secure Access pretty interesting."
"Based on ROI, Cisco Secure Access is worth the investment, as it is a core security product that allows customers to measure their ROI effectively."
"The scalability is excellent, and if a company needs to expand the product, it can do so easily."
"The monitoring and threat protection were the solution's most valuable features."
"The ability to monitor for threats is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"The active directory integration is very valuable as we can connect to the list of users that we have and the cloud control, the blocking, the access control of the cloud, can be handled by this product."
"The value in some of these solutions is just the integration of technologies with their on-prem DLP solution. So, you can tie on-prem and cloud DLP policies together. You can apply on-prem policies to the cloud to have consistent policies in a hybrid environment. So, it works very well in that hybrid environment of on-prem and cloud."
"This solution has improved my organization because it enables us to have visibility and monitoring over our global workforce connectivity to Office 365 and for Service Now."
"The stability of the solution is great, and it's one of the most stable products on the market."
"The stability of the solution is very good; it's one of the most stable products on the market."
 

Cons

"In general, I think Cisco Secure Access can be improved. I have worked a lot with Cisco Secure Connect, which is very intuitive and easy. With Cisco Secure Access, things are very complicated."
"The license model can be simplified; it is a bit tricky to understand exactly which licenses you need."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
"The worst part was the migration from Umbrella to Cisco Secure Access; we experienced some difficulties during that process."
"To improve Cisco Secure Access, I would suggest simplifying the need for different components that Cisco has tried to implement; for example, to have Cisco Secure Access, it is necessary to have AnyConnect, ISE, and Duo, meaning there are various products that need to integrate to achieve the same result, unlike the all-in-one compact products from other vendors."
"I believe Cisco Secure Access can be improved by changing some features, enhancing the user interface, and streamlining reporting."
"The only bad experiences we have had were really sort of when the platform launched and I think even Cisco was still learning how to support it."
"We don't have any good tools right now, which is a problem."
"The data security needs improvement. We should be able to leverage it a bit better for situations where someone may be trying to upload documents onto the cloud application."
"The tool's deployment is complex. The environment can be challenging, especially if unfamiliar with the product."
"They have some room for improvement in terms of being able to do troubleshooting. If you're trying to troubleshoot it, you have to work a lot with their backend people in order to get to a solution. So, trying to do your own troubleshooting can be a little bit difficult."
"The solution should work to incorporate some machine learning policies like IDM and VML."
"The data security needs improvement."
"It's a niche product. Not many people use it, and therefore there isn't as much of a knowledge base surrounding it."
"I would like to see them develop the ability to integrate it with a central management system."
"The solution needs to focus on data security."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Cisco Secure Access have been very competitive compared to other platforms. I believe that if Cisco continues to improve costs or offers something similar to a Cisco credit, it would attract more customers."
"For what you get, it's a fair price in comparison to other products."
"It is confusing. When you look at the prices, you have different licensing and years of licensing that you have to purchase. Additionally, it's unclear what service you get from those licenses regarding end-user support. We have a representative who has to walk me through it every time."
"It compares well with the competition because they're all priced on a per-user basis. I've seen the rest of them. There is definitely a huge price difference between them."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) solutions are best for your needs.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Outsourcing Company
7%
Construction Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Retailer
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business29
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise36
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Access?
Before adopting Cisco Secure Access, we primarily relied on traditional VPN-based remote access solutions combined with supporting security tools for web filtering, access control, and visibility. ...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Access?
Cisco Secure Access serves as our primary solution for providing secure remote access to corporate applications and resources for a distributed workforce. We use it to enforce consistent security p...
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Secure Access?
My biggest piece of advice is to approach Cisco Secure Access as a strategic, zero trust initiative rather than simply a replacement for traditional VPN technology. Organizations get the most value...
What needs improvement with Symantec CloudSOC CASB?
After integrating the Gatelet with a live environment, users experienced connectivity issues because they were not imported into the Symantec CloudSOC CASB. Currently, user import into the solution...
What is your primary use case for Symantec CloudSOC CASB?
The solution helps detect and control data in the cloud, focusing on Shadow IT and Shadow Data. The audit module helps with Shadow IT, while the Securelet and Gatelet modules monitor and prevent da...
 

Also Known As

No data available
CloudSOC, Symantec CloudSOC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Globe Telecom
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Access vs. Symantec CloudSOC CASB and other solutions. Updated: August 2026.
909,725 professionals have used our research since 2012.