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Cisco Sourcefire SNORT vs Dragos 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 Sourcefire SNORT
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (14th)
Dragos
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
2
Ranking in other categories
Operational Technology (OT) Security (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is designed for Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, up 2.5% compared to last year.
Dragos, on the other hand, focuses on Operational Technology (OT) Security, holds 7.9% mindshare, down 11.4% since last year.
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Sourcefire SNORT3.0%
Darktrace10.3%
Fortinet FortiGate9.6%
Other77.1%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
Operational Technology (OT) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Dragos7.9%
Nozomi Networks15.2%
Claroty Platform14.8%
Other62.099999999999994%
Operational Technology (OT) Security
 

Featured Reviews

reviewer2772102 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a consultancy with 1-10 employees
Logging and customizable rules have helped improve threat monitoring and detection
The logging is mainly what I consider one of the best features with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. Being able to log and store it in a file allows you to push it to a centralized repository. The logging and reporting help improve incident response. You should always be logging threats, any sort of misconfiguration, and anything that could be an issue. It's important to at least log and monitor it. The basic rules provide a good baseline in assessing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT's ability in providing real-time analytics for threat detection, but as a professional, you should look to constantly modify that baseline. They provide extensive customizability so you can define your own rules. The customizability allows it to be adaptable in protecting against diverse network threats to the constant change.
JR
OT Cybersecurity Engineer at Nadar
Offers strong incident response features but requires more asset visibility and flexibility
Dragos' best features are that they are more focused towards Incident Response, so they have a dedicated playbook in their platform, making it easier for anyone investigating any incidents to investigate the alerts. One of the main features of Dragos is that they have a dedicated Incident Response team, so if clients need any help, they are there to help. Dragos does real-time monitoring as well, collecting mirror traffic from the span port of the switch, and as soon as it gets the traffic, it analyzes it in real time and shows what's going on in the networks, which relates to the real-time visibility feature for ICS networks.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"There are a lot of features that I really appreciate with Firepower, which is why I advise most of my customers to go with Firepower."
"The most valuable feature is reliability, and this solution is better than Check Point."
"If you compare it to other vendors, the technical support from Cisco is excellent."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is the filtering."
"The tool's most valuable feature is threat detection, which is important because we have multiple layers not only in Cisco."
"The most valuable feature is the ability to automatically learn the traffic in our environment, and change the merit recommendations based on that."
"In general, the features are all great. However, if I need to take hardware for ASA, because they need to upgrade to Firepower, we want to create rules. For that, most of the time we go to the command line. Right now Firepower is working really hard on the grid. You can apply all those rules to the grid. Even if you want to monitor the logs, for example, the activity will tell you which particular user has been blocked because of that rule. Firepower's monitoring interface is very good, because you can see each and every piece. ASA also had it, but there you needed to type the command and be under the server to see all that stuff. In Firepower you have the possibility to go directly to the firewall. The way the monitoring is displayed is also very nice. The feature I appreciate most in Firepower is actually the grid. The grid has worked very well."
"Cisco Sourcefire SNORT is easy to configure and the reporting is great. It's also very user-friendly."
"Dragos' best features are that they are more focused towards Incident Response, so they have a dedicated playbook in their platform, making it easier for anyone investigating any incidents to investigate the alerts."
"Dragos is more expensive than other vendors, probably about fifteen to twenty percent more, but it is generally worth the investment."
 

Cons

"Integration with other components — even Cisco's own products — can be enhanced to improve administrative experience."
"The solution's approach to managing traffic blocking is confusing and impractical."
"I don't think this solution is a time-based control system, because one cannot filter traffic based on time."
"This is a good solution, but some others may have some advantages."
"Integration with other components — even Cisco's own products — can be enhanced to improve administrative experience."
"The main dashboard of Cisco Sourcefire SNORT could improve."
"There are problems setting up VPNs for some regions."
"The pricing needs to be improved."
"I think Dragos can offer more flexibility similar to Nozomi and more visibility into the assets, nodes, and links, which would make it more competitive in the future."
"Dragos could improve its asset visibility and discovery tools, as the competitor Claroty has better options in this area."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We have a three-year license for this solution."
"The cost is per port and can be expensive but it does include training and support for three years."
"If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five."
"I don't know the exact amount, but most of the time when I go to a company with a proposition, they will say, "This thing that you are selling is good, but it's expensive. Why don't you propose something like FortiGate, Check Point, or Palo Alto?" Cisco device are expensive compared to other devices."
"Licensing for this solution is paid on a yearly basis."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Construction Company
9%
Comms Service Provider
9%
University
9%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Energy/Utilities Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Construction Company
7%
Comms Service Provider
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise8
Large Enterprise7
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
If one is an extremely expensive product, and ten is cheap, I rate the tool's price as a five. There are some other tools in the market that are more expensive than Cisco. There are no additional c...
What needs improvement with Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
I have not had much experience with the community-driven rule set while utilizing Cisco Sourcefire SNORT. I don't have experience with recognizing zero-day vulnerabilities, but based on my knowledg...
What is your primary use case for Cisco Sourcefire SNORT?
Endpoint protection is the main use case. The main aspect involves specifying different rules, and when network traffic hits these rules, it will try to block the traffic or at least log the traffi...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Dragos?
Dragos is more expensive than other vendors, probably about fifteen to twenty percent more, but it is generally worth the investment.
What needs improvement with Dragos?
I think Dragos could be improved, as I have worked in Nozomi and compared it to Nozomi. Nozomi offers a lot of flexibility in what I am able to learn and unlearn, and I have more visibility towards...
What is your primary use case for Dragos?
I am an engineer in a service provider company where we help clients choose and implement security solutions, and I'm still looking for a new solution. I am certified in Dragos, but I have not depl...
 

Also Known As

Sourcefire SNORT
Dragos Platform
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

CareCore, City of Biel, Dimension Data, LightEdge, Lone Star College System, National Rugby League, Port Aventura, Smart City Networks, Telecom Italia, The Department of Education in Western Australia
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