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Cisco Security Cloud Control vs Fortinet FortiPortal comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 27, 2025

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 Security Cloud Control
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiPortal
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
10th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Security Cloud Control is 1.4%, up from 1.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiPortal is 1.0%, up from 1.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vivek Balaji - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful guides, excellent support, integration could improve
Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components. I have been using Cisco Defense Orchestrator for approximately eight months. The Cisco Defense…
Andriejus Artamonovas - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers reliable log retention and monitoring with prompt customer support
Fortinet FortiPortal's most valuable feature as a free service is the log retention for at least seven days. It is useful for our service-providing company as I manage many clients and need reminders for UTM license expiries. The service comes bundled when buying licenses, providing these features for free. Fortinet cloud also allows for basic management such as monitoring expiries and storing logs from devices for a week if configured correctly.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"This product provides excellent centralized device controls and reporting."
"The initial setup was straightforward. We spun up the VM onsite. We generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator. After that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."
"The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."
"With Cisco Defense Orchestrator, we can manage the complete Cisco Security solution. It provides a simple and centralized way to manage all products."
"I like the upgrade feature. That is pretty valuable to me because I have dual ASAs and when I go through CDO it does it for me pretty well. It's all done in the back-end and I don't really have to be involved. I just initiate, pick the image, and I pick when I want it done and it just does it, whether I have a single ASA or have a dual ASA."
"We have quite a few Active Stone by pairs. If they fail over... I'll see that there's a change on it and I'll have a look. The only change on it is that now this one is the standby, it took over the active role. I can go into that firewall and find out what happened... and troubleshoot based on that. That's pretty cool too."
"If we have a firewall go down, I can hop into CDO, pull the latest configuration off and apply it. That's really good. It helps save time."
"I recommend Fortinet FortiPortal without any reservations, backed by my experience with its potent features and reporting capabilities."
"It does a little bit better than some of the other products health-wise and updates-wise. It is really clear that a firewall is getting the signature updates in this timeframe. In some of the other products, usually, you have to go a couple of screens in to see that, but not so much in this product."
"The customer likes it for the graphs, the dynamics and the reporting functionality it offers."
"I like the tool's controller facility."
"The role-based access controls give us granular control over what features to present to a customer, and the integration into FortiAnalyzer is the most valuable feature."
"I am very comfortable with it, including it's reporting on threats and through its activities."
"From a scalability perspective, I found the solution to be completely fine...The solution's technical support is absolutely fine."
"The firewall and site-blocking features are valuable."
 

Cons

"It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances."
"If I make a change locally to the firewall, CDO gives an alarm or an error message and says there's a change in compliance: "The firewall has this configuration but the last time it was compiled it had that configuration." That view of new changes versus the old could be better... I had to log in manually, locally on the firewall, to check which version, which configuration was actually running. I couldn't see it in CDO."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up."
"They can centralize all products and provide a correlation about an incident and the response. They can also provide an on-premises solution. Currently, Cisco Defense Orchestrator is just for cloud deployments, not for on-premises deployments. Customers have to manage it on the cloud. We are based in Vietnam, and most of the customers here prefer to have on-premises deployments. Customers, especially from banking and government sectors, do not prefer to do anything on the cloud. Some of the small enterprises use the cloud."
"They need to work on the user interface. It needs to be improved to make it more user-friendly."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."
"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."
"We had some MX devices that were blocking Windows Update from happening. We found out it was a Meraki issue, but it would have been nice if it had been flagged for us: "Hey, these updates are failing because the MX is blocking it." It wasn't a huge problem, but there was a loss of our time as well as the fact that the updates didn't get pushed out... It would have been nice if CDO had let us know that that was an issue."
"It's useful for us but if it had more educational reporting, it would good. It's not necessarily lacking but it's an area that could get better."
"I find their logging a little bit trickier to manage. The logging of events is broken up into a lot of different categories. Instead of breaking up my logs into several different places, I personally like to have all the events in one spot and then filter them down. In particular, I find that troubleshooting on Fortinet takes a little bit longer just because of those functional breakups in the logs."
"So if it's more than a thousand, there could be some scalability issues. It becomes more complex as you go."
"The tool should provide a 10-15 days extension for customers when their license expires."
"Fingerprint access security would improve this solution."
"Fortinet FortiPortal could improve by providing a learning portal and better security."
"The product must have in-built SD-WAN connectivity."
"There can be defects in Fortinet FortiPortal when functioning at high temperatures."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."
"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."
"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."
"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."
"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
"Fortinet FortiPortal is expensive in Pakistan."
"I am satisfied with the pricing for this solution."
"Fortinet FortiPortal is not expensive."
"The price of the solution is reasonable."
"The solution is quite expensive."
"Fortinet FortiPortal is relatively expensive, but being an industry-leading firewall, it does come with a cost."
"The licensing costs attached to the solution make it an expensive product."
"On average, it tends to be cheaper than other enterprise solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
48%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Government
3%
Computer Software Company
11%
Media Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.
What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?
Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiPortal?
The firewall and site-blocking features are valuable.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiPortal?
The cost of Fortinet FortiPortal is affordable, particularly for our subscription. Compared to other solutions like Cisco, it's significantly cheaper. I would rate the price as a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiPortal?
The only complaint about Fortinet FortiPortal is the need for frequent firmware upgrades, as it requires constant updating due to potential security vulnerabilities. With a proper license, the abil...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Defense Orchestrator, CDO
FortiPortal
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Security Cloud Control vs. Fortinet FortiPortal and other solutions. Updated: July 2025.
865,164 professionals have used our research since 2012.