Cisco Secure Email vs Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Sep 6, 2023
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
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Ranking in Email Security
1st
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (9th)
Cisco Secure Email
Ranking in Email Security
2nd
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Cisco Security Portfolio (10th)
Microsoft Exchange Online P...
Ranking in Email Security
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Anti-Malware Tools (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2024, in the Email Security category, the mindshare of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is 13.8%, down from 20.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Email is 10.7%, down from 13.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) is 8.9%, down from 11.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Email Security
Unique Categories:
Advanced Threat Protection (ATP)
13.5%
Microsoft Security Suite
1.9%
Cisco Security Portfolio
2.0%
Anti-Malware Tools
2.5%
 

Featured Reviews

Jamie LeClair - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 28, 2023
File-sharing options and ease of collaboration or meetings allow for quick collaborations and chats
I work in my company's IT department, so I use all of the products under Office 365 daily, including Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Teams, and all the other components in the product. My company can't make it through a day or go by without using the products offered under Office 365. Some of our manufacturing workers may use Office 365 a lot less, but it is still necessary for things like Microsoft Outlook and Exchange. I found Microsoft Teams to be the most valuable feature of the solution, along with all of the products and features offered under Office 365. My organization has remote workers, and we can't run the company without meetings organized with the help of Microsoft Teams.
Muhammad Naeemuddoja - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 14, 2023
Robust email security with advanced threat protection, seamless integration with the Cisco security ecosystem, and flexibility in deployment options
While Cisco is a preferred choice for larger enterprises, its products, especially in the realm of security, tend to be more expensive due to their advanced features. Many organizations commonly rely on Microsoft Outlook for their email needs. Transitioning to Cisco security solutions, including Cisco SecureMail, requires careful consideration and typically involves a learning stage. The decision between traditional hardware and virtual machines (VMs) for deploying solutions like Cisco Secure Mail often depends on financial considerations. VMs are generally more cost-effective compared to dedicated hardware, leading industries to increasingly favor VM deployment. The choice is particularly relevant when the server's capabilities are robust enough to meet organizational needs. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
ElvisHenriquez - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 4, 2023
Scalable solution with great admin interface but issues with impersonisation
I primarily use Online Protection for technical support Online Protection has allowed our customers to keep their data on our site using the DLP the solution offers. Online Protection's most valuable feature is its admin interface. Online Protection has an issue in that it doesn't provide an…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Microsoft Defender has a feature to protect each and every attachment. Even if it's an encrypted attachment, it will check for any potential threats."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 helps people to work remotely. It is a secure solution. We don't need to use our company's computers or get VPN connections to the networks. I can control how they share screens and what they send to the devices. It keeps our organizations confidential and sensitive information safe."
"I would say that 90% of the spam and phishing attack emails get blocked right off the bat."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 has improved my organization's security. It makes it easier to manage the infrastructure without the help of third-party applications."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365's most valuable feature is its performance."
"The two main features that prove most beneficial for us are URL scanning and attachment scanning."
"Does a thorough job of examining email and URLs for malicious content."
"It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure."
"Anti-Spam and Advanced Malware Protection are the most valuable features... and we also have the option to block Zero-day attacks."
"It's flexible. There are a lot of rules and policies that can be easily applied for certain employees or certain mailboxes."
"The most valuable features are Advanced Malware Protection, URL filtering, and of course Reputation Filtering."
"It sends us reports, where we can see if there have been attacks, e.g. DDoS. If so, we can switch to a clean IP."
"The filtering is definitely better at catching both spam and malicious messages, and there's a lot of extremely granular ability for setting up rules. You can do it the way you want to. The Microsoft solution tends to be pretty limited in how it allows some of that to be done."
"It integrates with Active Directory and we can limit specific users to using specific applications."
"It provides good IT assistance."
"The initial setup is just a standard process."
"It is easy to configure, easy to use, easy to add exclusions, easy to track, and easy to add anything else if you want."
"The scalability is pretty good; it does what it is supposed to do."
"The product protects against malware."
"I like the product's ZAP feature."
"It's definitely scalable."
"Microsoft Exchange Online Protection has features like DLP (data loss protection), Safe Attachment, and Safe Links."
"The email policy configuration options in Microsoft EOP are satisfactory."
 

Cons

"We need a separate license and we don't know how to get the license that is required."
"We noticed that from time to time, Microsoft's stability does have problems. Sometimes the service goes up and down. Sometimes they change without prior notice."
"In one of the reports I can get the exact place where a vulnerable file resides. But for that, I need to explicitly go into the device and check. If they could include that file part in the report, without my having to go to the device itself, that would help."
"Too many false positives and lacks an accurate capability to detect malicious SharePoint sites."
"Microsoft should provide more documentation for users so they can self-educate. I would like to see more documentation for advanced security features."
"In some situations, it has not been able to pick impersonated emails having no attachments. Technical support definitely has a scope for improvement."
"Microsoft wants its well-paying customers to finish testing some of its half-baked products, find bugs, and report bugs back to Microsoft's team, which is a little frustrating for those who have to manage it and roll it up to thousands of people across the organization."
"This product's effectiveness could be improved, in terms of detecting unwanted spam or even malware between the emails, compared to other products."
"We didn't get any malware, but a few phishing emails, maybe one or two, slipped in."
"The solution needs to improve its advanced phishing filters. It is very good at filtering things which have bad reputations. However, when phishing or malicious emails are new or coming from a legitimate source, we don't feel that the solution is working."
"There could be additional DLP functionality for it."
"Typically, in a phishing email, they try to use a name everybody's going to recognize, like the CEO's name or the CFO's name... With this appliance, the way it's designed at the moment, for us to really stop that with any level of confidence, we have to build a dictionary of all the names of the people we want it to check, and all the ways they could be spelled. My name would be in there as Phillip Collins, Phillip D. Collins, Phillip Dean Collins, Phil Collins, Phil D. Collins. There could be eight or 10 variations of my name that we'd have to put in the dictionary. There's no artificial intelligence to say "Phil Collins" could be all these other things, and to stop phishing from coming through in that way."
"I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability."
"The scalability must be improved."
"The tool's pricing can be improved."
"The user interface is a bit complex."
"Having orchestration features added to Microsoft Exchange Online Protection, particularly automation and remediation, would be quite useful."
"They should specify the difference between Defender for Office 365 and Exchange Online Protection."
"Microsoft 365 Defender and EOP policies are stable with the proper license. However, with the basic policy, it's hard to say it's stable due to configuration limitations."
"The tool's classification for bulk email is cumbersome."
"The tool is not 100% stable."
"When the product is being updated, it changes some of the setups. The support team is also not good."
"We have experienced issues while migrating from on-prem to the cloud. The tool needs to improve its stability."
"Online Protection has an issue in that it doesn't provide an option to stop impersonation."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution saves money so we have seen a return on investment."
"I know that the product is incredibly expensive."
"The pricing has become expensive."
"Defender for 365 comes in various plans and licenses, along with other Microsoft security solutions. Purchasing this kind of package or security bundle gives good value for money, and that's what I recommend."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"Compared to other brands, Microsoft Defender for Office 365's pricing is competitive."
"Microsoft Defender is expensive. I typically recommend it only if clients have the budget. Otherwise, I would suggest an alternative."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"Licensing costs depend on how many users there are. It could range between $5 and $7 per month, per user."
"In my previous organization, avoiding four instances of CryptoLocker within an estimated six month period is approximately $600,000 in lost time and effort. Our five year cost was about a million dollars, and the four outages that we had equated to 65 percent of that five year cost."
"The license was not per user, the license model was per feature. You could choose anti-virus, anti-spam, etc. It was feature-based and charged yearly."
"We were using Proofpoint and then we switched to Cisco... reportability was one of the main reasons we switched, but the biggest one was cost. If you can get an equivalent functionality for a better price it's wise to do so. That's what our primary decision came down to: We could get equivalent functionality at a lower price point."
"The pricing is good."
"I rate the product price as six on a scale of one to ten, where one means it is a very expensive tool."
"I rate the pricing a ten out of ten on a scale where one means it is less cost-effective, and ten means it is the most cost-effective solution."
"Cisco Secure Email is not expensive, and licensing costs are yearly."
"The pricing for the solution depends on what you are trying to achieve with the use of the product, but I know that it is not a cheaply priced product. Yearly payments have to be made towards the licensing fees of the solution."
"The pricing of the solution is reasonable."
"Online Protection is fairly expensive."
"The solution falls on the higher or more expensive side of the spectrum."
"The solution's pricing is subscription-based rather than a yearly licensing cost. Pricing is based on the size of the environment and company and can be expensive."
"The solution is expensive but is backed by Microsoft's reputation."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is very expensive, I rate the pricing a six. For licensing, we can make monthly or yearly payments. Right now, we pay 5 USD per month to secure a person's license."
"The tool's pricing is excellent."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Government
7%
Educational Organization
19%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Manufacturing Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
While Microsoft Defender for Office 365 necessitates pricier E3 or E5 subscriptions, the extensive functionality offe...
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps is a very good solution that allows you to use a single port or tool to control eve...
What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?
Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing for Cisco Email Security Appliance involves recurring costs for licenses based on the contracted time fra...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The discontinuation of physical hardware solutions is a significant area for improvement in the Cisco Email Security ...
What do you like most about Microsoft Exchange Online Protection?
The initial setup was easy. The configuration process is very straightforward.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Exchange Online Protection?
We face challenges with reporting features and the lack of a proper dashboard in Microsoft's portal. There's no graph...
What is your primary use case for Microsoft Exchange Online Protection?
The main use case is to block suspicious links in emails. However, some functionalities like SIPP attachment are not ...
 

Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
Microsoft EOP, MS Exchange Online Protection
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
Information Not Available
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Email vs. Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) and other solutions. Updated: July 2024.
793,295 professionals have used our research since 2012.