Cisco Secure Workload vs CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security comparison

Why PeerSpot?

Cisco and CrowdStrike are both solutions in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category. Cisco is ranked #23, while CrowdStrike is ranked #9 with an average rating of 8.8. Cisco holds a 2.1% mindshare in CWPP, compared to CrowdStrike’s 3.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Cisco users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of CrowdStrike users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 9, 2024

Cisco Secure Workload and CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security are competitors in the cloud security market. Users generally favor the features of CrowdStrike for its proactive threat detection capabilities.

Features: Cisco Secure Workload is noted for strong analytics, visibility in hybrid environments, and integration with existing infrastructure. CrowdStrike Falcon is recognized for comprehensive threat intelligence, ease of scalability, and advanced threat detection, which users rate highly.

Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Workload users often mention the need for easier setup processes, enhanced reporting, and better usability optimization. CrowdStrike Falcon feedback highlights the need to reduce resource consumption and suggestions to improve usability and efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CrowdStrike Falcon is favored for its seamless deployment process, being less complex compared to Cisco Secure Workload. Cisco offers robust customer support, but CrowdStrike's automated deployment and operational readiness are seen as advantages in the initial stages.

Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Workload is considered competitively priced, attracting cost-conscious buyers. Although CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is more expensive, users believe its long-term ROI justifies this cost due to advanced security capabilities and market-leading threat intelligence.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Secure Workload vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security Report (Updated: September 2026).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

September 2026

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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

Qualys TotalCloud

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2026, in the Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) category, the mindshare of Qualys TotalCloud is 1.9%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Workload is 2.1%, down from 2.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is 3.8%, down from 4.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Qualys TotalCloud	1.9%
CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security	3.8%
Cisco Secure Workload	2.1%
Other	92.2%

Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP)

Featured Reviews

reviewer2859021

Sr Security Engineer at a tech vendor with 5,001-10,000 employees

Risk-based triage has transformed container security and now prioritizes high-impact threats

The best features Qualys TotalCloud offers currently include managing cloud infrastructure and container security while facing major challenges such as alert fatigue. Traditional vulnerability scanners flag hundreds of CVEs on short-lived Kubernetes containers, some of which have no internet exposure or are gone before we can even triage them. I leverage Qualys TotalCloud to move beyond static CVSS. I use it to implement runtime exposure, correlation risk reprioritization, and shift-left integration. This notifies developers to fix a base image upstream rather than patching live ephemeral instances. In my work with cloud and container security, the biggest operational hurdle was alert fatigue. I use Qualys to shift left from static CVSS severity to context-aware risk prioritization. I correlated raw vulnerability data with real-time risk factors such as public network exposure, active runtime execution, or overly permissive IAM roles. This allows us to immediately drop the priority of isolated containers and escalate lower-severity CVEs that sit on an exposed, high-risk path. We can map these findings directly back to our CI/CD pipelines so developers can patch the root base images upstream. We have drastically cut down the signal-to-noise ratio, saved a lot of manual hours doing triage work, and ensured engineering effort goes directly towards high-impact risk reduction.

Read full review

Raj Metkar

Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA

Discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map

We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration allows Cisco Secure Workload to learn about our networks and network tags, providing valuable insights into vulnerabilities related to the operating system and various applications installed on our servers. Recently, Cisco announced a new product called HyperShield, an AI-based autonomous micro-segmentation solution. While Cisco has not stated that HyperShield will replace Cisco Secure Workload, it represents a natural evolution for the company. HyperShield features dynamic policy discovery and enforcement; however, once policies are enforced, they do not change until a discovery occurs, requiring a re-enforcement process. This new platform operates autonomously, minimizing the need for user or security engineer intervention. I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product. Instead of enhancing the current product, they have introduced a new solution. Cisco plans to honor existing Tetration licenses, allowing users to transition to HyperShield without additional costs, reflecting the investment enterprises have already made. From Cisco’s perspective, this represents a natural progression in their product line. While the product name changes, it seems more of a rebranding effort. The enhancements are greater autonomy, improved discovery, and automatic enforcement, which are now being introduced in HyperShield. Cisco Secure Workload offers automatic policy enforcement but cannot adjust policies dynamically as the application needs to change. Having used the platform for the past five years, the recent announcement has been reassuring. Cisco has confirmed that our investment in the platform will not go to waste. They will honor our existing licenses, providing a natural migration path to the new solution without any disruption

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Manish Indupuri

senior DevOps engineer at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Provides centralized visibility and real-time threat detection across multiple cloud accounts

Regarding how CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security can be improved, I would say they can improve their support. There were a couple of cases where we needed to escalate issues in order to get proper support. That part could use some tweaking on their end. Additionally, the recent incident during the last summer literally impacted our systems. We had some of our workloads that affected the business, and it was a difficult experience. Apart from that, it is a good tool and the experience with CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security has been excellent. We did not find any kind of issues, but if they could improve their response to security-related incidents and provide on-time support or better understand our concerns and address them accordingly, it could be very helpful. Regarding needed improvements, I think they should enhance automatic alerting with CI/CD scanning and reporting capabilities. Additionally, it would be better to implement Falcon sensor health monitoring so agents are always active. We could know how it is behaving and how it is treating our environment. That could be a little helpful.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Qualys TotalCloud provides unified vulnerability and threat assessment for IaaS and SaaS and a single prioritized view of risk, which helps reduce my workload by not having to combine multiple sources."

"Qualys TotalCloud has positively impacted my organization by providing visibility into the environment."

"Qualys TotalCloud provides a single, prioritized view of risk, reducing the workload associated with consolidating multiple sources for risk prioritization."

"Once you have your vulnerabilities fixed and your patches pushed out using Qualys TotalCloud, then you are able to eliminate threats and cyber risk."

"I would definitely recommend it because it is easy to handle any cloud resources."

"TotalCloud has been excellent in providing us with immediate access to all the products and features we need, such as CSPM, TruRisk Insights, and compliance reports, including CIS and HIPAA."

"Qualys TotalCloud is overall the best tool available in the market for scanning purposes."

"In my opinion, this is the best tool."

More Qualys TotalCloud pros

"A complete and powerful micro-segmentation solution."

"Overall, this is a really good product and I am happy with it."

"The most valuable feature is micro-segmentation, which is the most important with respect to visibility."

"Instead of proving that all the access control lists are in place and all the EPGs are correct, we can just point the auditor to a dashboard and point out that there aren't any escaped conversations. It saves an enormous, enormous amount of time."

"Scalability is its most valuable feature."

"It's stable."

"The only use case I can see that makes sense is micro-segmentation. I think there are other use cases for it. The main purpose of the product is to do micro-segmentation by collecting IP. That could be done by installing an agent, and then you have all the communication coming in and out. You could also use some flow sensors installed in the network that receive a copy of the traffic and then report that back to the system."

"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."

More Cisco Secure Workload pros

"CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security offers a very good way to see as an overview which resources exist or are linked with which others, and how they interact with each other."

"It's easy to gather insights and conduct analysis about existing threats."

"CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security has positively impacted my organization by reducing false positives and enhancing security day by day; after testing it on 100 to 200 systems, we convinced the client to deploy it across 6,000 workstations and over 500 servers."

"The threat intelligence is the most vital feature"

"The most valuable feature of Falcon Cloud Security is its comprehensive threat-hunting ability."

"The most valuable features of CrowdStrike Falcon include its automation capabilities, efficacy, and lower risk."

"The scalability of the product has been great."

"CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is user-friendly and provides detection transparency, allowing us to present real-time documentation to our executives clearly explaining any detected issues."

More CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security pros

Cons

"Areas that need improvement in every solution include the remediation part. The remediation steps should be simple enough for everyone to understand."

"There is room for improvement in vulnerability scanning, particularly for PaaS environments. Currently, Qualys does not have full access to these instances, which limits its effectiveness."

"Qualys TotalCloud needs to improve its accuracy for non-Windows operating systems."

"Qualys's ticketing system can be confusing when assigning tasks to individuals, and support could be improved by offering instant call solutions with engineers in addition to ticket replies."

"Qualys TotalCloud needs to enhance its scanning capabilities in the IP domain, as it currently lacks the functionality to resolve IPs to their corresponding domain names."

"In a future release, I suggest that zero-day vulnerabilities should be predicted in advance using AI technologies. The system is not 100% secure yet, so proactive threat hunting could be enhanced to be more proactive than the current system."

"I sometimes have difficulty detecting or uninstalling certain versions of applications, which I have to do manually."

"The support process is inefficient due to the excessive number of replies required when submitting tickets."

More Qualys TotalCloud cons

"A feature that I was looking for was emailed alerts and notifications so we'd get them right away."

"It has an uninviting interface."

"It is highly scalable, but there is a limitation that it is only available on Cisco devices."

"Cisco Tetration needs more flags and system alerts that we should get with network capture."

"I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product."

"The scalability of this solution needs to be improved."

"There was a controversy when Cisco reduced the amount of data they kept, and the solution became quite cost-intensive, which made its adoption challenging….Although they have modified it now, I preferred the previous version, and I wish all the functionality were back under the same product."

"The integration could be better, especially with different types of solutions."

More Cisco Secure Workload cons

"I rate it a six because the visibility part, I feel, is a bit lacking."

"My experience with CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security's pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is very expensive; even though it helped a lot, it is rather expensive."

"I find that sometimes the menus in CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security are a little confusing, but it's getting better every day."

"The tool is expensive."

"I feel concerned when I need to request access to customer environments to implement new features."

"For the past six months, we have been facing some issues. Because it is a cloud-based infrastructure, it has been getting slower."

"The tool's scalability is low."

"I think the UI could be improved, but the technical support said CrowdStrike will improve the UI in the near future. But right now, it’s so messy."

More CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Qualys TotalCloud offers cost-effective licensing flexibility."

"Qualys TotalCloud is expensive, but it offers a premier solution with no headaches."

"Its price seems higher compared to other tools, but it is worth it. If they could adjust the pricing and make it comparable with other tools, that would be great."

"The pricing for TotalCloud is attractive and competitive in the market. Given the features, especially the dashboard, I have no concerns regarding pricing."

"Qualys TotalCloud is cost-efficient and was selected for its value compared to other products."

"The pricing is comparable. It is built into our other product, so I cannot piecemeal it. It is a part of our subscription."

"Qualys TotalCloud offers competitive pricing given its comprehensive suite of features, including integration, assessment, remediation, and detection capabilities, all within a single platform."

"As a middle management member, I do not have direct pricing knowledge, but based on the knowledge from our meetings, its pricing is competitive."

More Qualys TotalCloud pricing and cost advice

"It is not cheap and pricing may limit scalability."

"The cost for the hardware is around 300k."

"The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it."

"The price is based on how many computers you're going to install it on."

"The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated."

"Pricing depends on the scope of the application and the features. Larger installations save more."

"Regarding price, Cisco Secure Workload can be expensive if you don't have a budget. If you're not doing micro-segmentation, every extra security measure or enforcement you're putting on top of your existing environment will be an extra cost. It's not a cheap solution at all. But from my point of view, if you need to do micro-segmentation, this is one of the best tools I've seen for it. I can't compare that to Microsoft's solution because I haven't looked into it. I've looked into VMware and Cisco. Those are the only two that I know of. I didn't know that Microsoft could do micro-segmentation at all. Maybe they can, but I haven't heard anything about it."

"CrowdStrike Falcon is very expensive."

"The pricing is fair for what you get. I'd rate them a solid nine out of ten in terms of pricing."

"Its price is moderate."

"CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is very expensive for us. Last month, we had a big issue that took much time and money to resolve. It slowed down our business and required our management team to get involved. We had a problem similar to the "Blue Screen of Death" issue many US companies faced. This incident used up many of our IT resources in just a few months. That's why we're looking for a replacement tool now."

"The pricing is reasonable, neither overly expensive nor excessively cheap, making it competitive compared to other market options."

"It's an expensive product"

"I am not the one who handled the pricing. A different team worked on it, but it is pretty expensive."

"The price is not too high, it is okay."

More CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Comms Service Provider

18%

Outsourcing Company

11%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Manufacturing Company

13%

Outsourcing Company

Financial Services Firm

Government

Financial Services Firm

11%

Manufacturing Company

Comms Service Provider

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	11
Large Enterprise	38

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	16
Midsize Enterprise	10
Large Enterprise	26

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Qualys TotalCloud?

We purchased Qualys TotalCloud for GCP and Azure as well. It is comparatively better than others regarding pricing. T...

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What needs improvement with Qualys TotalCloud?

I am unsure about how Qualys TotalCloud can be improved. I do not have anything else to add about the needed improvem...

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What is your primary use case for Qualys TotalCloud?

My main use case for Qualys TotalCloud is telemetry, although I am unsure about the specifics. A quick specific examp...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for CrowdStrike Falcon ASPM?

I believe that CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security is not expensive for United States-based companies. For Brazil, howe...

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What needs improvement with CrowdStrike Falcon ASPM?

I am aware that just as we have a one-click sensor for faster deployment of the agent, there is probably a tool that ...

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What is your primary use case for CrowdStrike Falcon ASPM?

We use cloud security comprehensively, including CSPM, DSPM, AISPM, and CDR, not just for our organization, but becau...

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Comparisons

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Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs Qualys TotalCloud

Compared 5% of the time

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Compared 12% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 11% of the time

VMware NSX vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 7% of the time

BMC Helix Cloud Security vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 6% of the time

Check Point Email Security (formerly Harmony Email & Collaboration) vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 6% of the time

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Wiz vs CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

Prisma Cloud by Palo Alto Networks vs CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Compared 5% of the time

SentinelOne Singularity Cloud Security vs CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Compared 4% of the time

AWS GuardDuty vs CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Compared 4% of the time

AWS Security Hub vs CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Compared 3% of the time

More CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Qualys TotalCloud

October 2026

Download Qualys TotalCloud product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload

November 2026

Download Cisco Secure Workload product report

Buyer's Guide

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

November 2026

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security report

Download CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security product report

Also Known As

Qualys TotalCloud with FlexScan

Cisco Tetration

CrowdStrike Falcon ASPM

Overview

Qualys TotalCloud enhances security posture across cloud environments with continuous monitoring, vulnerability management, and risk visualization, ensuring efficient threat assessment and automated remediation for improved cyber risk reduction.

Qualys TotalCloud offers a robust suite of security tools essential for organizations managing multi-cloud infrastructures. By integrating cloud accounts and automating workflows, it supports AWS, Azure, and GCP, offering comprehensive vulnerability management and zero-day detection. The platform's user-friendly design, combined with its extensive risk management and unified threat assessment capabilities, enables organizations to prioritize and remediate vulnerabilities effectively. TruRisk Insights provides clear insights on cyber risks, while the automation options streamline patch management and scanning processes. API integration across IaaS and SaaS environments further enhances resource allocation efficiency and saves time, addressing misconfigurations across cloud environments.

What are the most important features of Qualys TotalCloud?

Accurate Vulnerability Reports: Delivers precise and actionable insights for risk mitigation.
Zero-Day Detection: Identifies and addresses zero-day vulnerabilities proactively.
Unified Threat Assessment: Offers comprehensive evaluation of threats across the environment.
Extensive Risk Management: Manages risks effectively with advanced insights and prioritization.
Continuous Monitoring: Provides non-stop surveillance for vulnerabilities and threats.
Cloud-Native Automation: Streamlines processes and reduces manual efforts using automation.
FlexScan for Internet-Facing VMs: Scans external VMs efficiently to detect vulnerabilities.
Dashboard Risk Visualization: Clear visualization helps prioritize vulnerabilities.

What benefits and ROI should users look for?

Improved Security Posture: Enhances threat detection and response across clouds.
Time Savings: Automation reduces time spent on manual vulnerability management.
Resource Efficiency: Better allocation of resources through streamlined workflows.
Enhanced Risk Prioritization: Focus on critical vulnerabilities for effective mitigation.
Integrated Cloud Accounts: Facilitates seamless cloud management and security.

Qualys TotalCloud is deployed in sectors needing rigorous vulnerability management, such as finance and healthcare. Companies utilize it to secure multi-cloud environments like AWS, Azure, and GCP, focus on compliance, and integrate security into CI/CD pipelines to detect and remedy threats pre-deployment.

Qualys

Cisco Secure Workload offers advanced auditing, micro-segmentation, and network visibility, automating policy presentation for improved security. It enhances application dependency mapping and provides comprehensive telemetry with strategic policy enforcement.

Cisco Secure Workload specializes in automating micro-segmentation, data center management, and traffic analysis. Its capabilities facilitate application dependency mapping and enhance internal micro-segmentation, providing invaluable network visibility. Users find its automation in policy presentation and strategic enforcement beneficial, along with granular control and scalability, despite needing improvements in scalability and integration capabilities. Enhanced notification features, troubleshooting options, and an efficient interface are desired for seamless deployment, along with stronger multi-tenancy, redundancy, and monitoring functions. Broader platform support and integrated cloud connectivity are desired for unified management across tools.

What are the most important features?

Auditing: Provides in-depth network analysis and security auditing capabilities.
Micro-Segmentation: Enhances network security by automating segmentation at a granular level.
Application Dependency Mapping: Visualizes connections and interactions between applications.
Network Visibility: Delivers comprehensive insight into network activities and dynamics.
Policy Discovery: Streamlines policy creation through automation and reduces manual intervention.
Comprehensive Telemetry: Offers complete coverage and insights for better security assessment.

What benefits and ROI should be evaluated?

Enhanced Security Measures: Offers robust features for network security improvement.
Automated Processes: Reduces manual efforts through automation, increasing efficiency.
Scalability: Adapts to growing network demands with flexible scalability options.
Granular Control: Allows detailed control over network policies and enforcement.

Entities in finance, gas, and oil sectors utilize Cisco Secure Workload for networking site management and compliance maintenance. It integrates into extensive Cisco infrastructure, aiding routers, switches, and endpoints, thus supporting auditors in network synchronization and auditing needs.

Cisco

CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security helps organizations stop cloud breaches from code to runtime. As CrowdStrike's cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP), it combines real-time cloud detection and response with proactive cloud security to help security teams prevent, detect, investigate, and stop modern cloud attacks.

Industry-leading threat intelligence and AI-powered insights help security teams understand how adversaries operate, uncover evasive threats, and respond with confidence. The result is a stronger cloud security posture, faster investigations, and reduced mean time to detect and respond.

What are CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security's key features?

Real-Time Protection: Detects and responds to cloud attacks in real time.
Industry-Leading Adversary Intelligence: Turns intel into prioritized risk and threats.
Cloud Asset Visibility: Discovers and maps assets across the entire cloud estate.
Preemptive Security: Identities risks earlier in development to prevent insecure deployments.

What benefits should users look for in reviews?

Faster Threat Detection and Response: Achieve up to 89% faster cloud detection and response
Improved Cloud Security Posture: Identify and prioritize high-risk vulnerabilities and misconfigurations faster
Reduce Blind Spots: Gain up to 72% faster ability to monitor the entire cloud estate
Compliance Assurance: Aids in maintaining industry standards.
Return on Investment: 264% Return on Investment over 3 year period

Organizations use Falcon Cloud Security to stop cloud breaches from code to runtime. It helps teams reduce blind spots, focus on the risks most likely to lead to a breach, and detect and respond to attacks faster. By connecting proactive cloud security with real-time detection and response, it strengthens security from development through production.

CrowdStrike

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

ADP, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC)

Information Not Available

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

September 2026

Free Report: Cisco Secure Workload vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security

Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Secure Workload vs. CrowdStrike Falcon Cloud Security and other solutions. Updated: September 2026.

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