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Cisco Umbrella vs IBM Security Network IPS 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 Umbrella
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
123
Ranking in other categories
Secure Web Gateways (SWG) (1st), Internet Security (1st), Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) (2nd), Domain Name System (DNS) Security (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (2nd)
IBM Security Network IPS
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) (21st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Umbrella and IBM Security Network IPS aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Umbrella is designed for Domain Name System (DNS) Security and holds a mindshare of 18.7%, down 25.3% compared to last year.
IBM Security Network IPS, on the other hand, focuses on Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS), holds 1.6% mindshare, up 0.4% since last year.
Domain Name System (DNS) Security Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Cisco Umbrella18.7%
Infoblox Advanced DNS Protection9.4%
Palo Alto Networks DNS Security8.1%
Other63.8%
Domain Name System (DNS) Security
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS) Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Security Network IPS1.6%
Fortinet FortiGate11.4%
Darktrace10.8%
Other76.2%
Intrusion Detection and Prevention Software (IDPS)
 

Featured Reviews

BB
Senior Network Engineer at Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C.
Ensures comprehensive protection with seamless threat logging and efficient policy management
My favorite feature of Cisco Umbrella is probably just the DNS and the fact that when a security threat happens, all of that gets logged in their Umbrella portal, and it's very easy to find who's been accessing the site and how many people have accessed it, so that we can go to them and make sure they're not compromised. The features of Cisco Umbrella benefit my company by providing less time to search for things through logs, to look for what we need. It's just one place to go, and we just search for it, and we find it really fast. The fact that there's a virtual database that has all that information is great on our portal.
Jacob_Koithra - PeerSpot reviewer
Project & Program manager at Shell Grp
User-friendly and has a good blocking feature but is quite expensive
Defining the new security rules and policies sometimes becomes a challenge. Integration with other platforms becomes a challenge as well. I'd like to see more integration with other tools and technologies. XGS 7100 has an end of support for the 30th of December 2022. Many are losing support. All the products of the XGS, including XGS 3100, 4100, 5100, and 7100, support is ending in December 2022. We need to know what is the plan post that? Do we need to spend money on them? Will that be extended? There has been no communication on the website either. It's an expensive device.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It is user-friendly. It is easy to manage the solution."
"The most valuable features of this solution are the Web Filtering and the APT."
"Go for it; there is no better way to secure guest networks without any headaches."
"The solution is very easy to manage. We found the initial setup, for example, to be quite simple."
"The Secure Internet Gateway benefits my company because now our whole traffic goes to the Umbrella Cloud and it gets checked there, so nothing malicious is coming into our network."
"Cisco Umbrella's integration with other solutions has been a great feature in terms of ease of administration. Administration and troubleshooting are faster. The single pane of glass is great as well. Another great feature of Cisco Umbrella is remote browser isolation. With this feature, you open a virtual browser, and it's seamless to the user. If the user ends up going to a bad website that's passed a policy and something bad tries to download, it will not download into the machine because it is a virtual window somewhere in the cloud. You are protected by this feature."
"Cisco Umbrella is easy to monitor, manage, and deploy."
"In general, it increases the security level, helps us prevent threats from being accessed, and increases the visibility into internet-bound traffic, so overall it increases the internet security of the organization."
"IPS has helped us in understanding more about the latest threats out there and made us realize that we need to be proactive when it comes to security rather than reactive."
"The most valuable feature is its simplicity."
"The blocking feature is great; it acts as an in-line blocker, and any malicious traffic that you see, or anything really, it can block the traffic."
"This is definitely a product that I recommend, especially for organizations that want a quick integration of data from the transaction systems, with a very low cost of operations."
"The initial setup is simple."
"Signature based analysis and preventing different types of network attacks."
 

Cons

"My experience is that it is a bit slow. The response is a bit slow, but they provide support."
"The product has been rejected by business due to the pricing; no ROI as such."
"I'm hoping for the conversion of Cisco ZTNA's features from Duo to Umbrella."
"I would like to see more integrations with more products. Some of the integrations need to be simpler as well. For example, the integration with Cisco Secure Firewall could be simpler. It would be good to make reporting simpler. For those who don't use SecureX, it would be good to make Umbrella really simple to use upfront. It's not a difficult product, but it can be daunting for someone who isn't exposed to it because there are so many options."
"Cisco Umbrella could be improved by making the policies more granular, as in some cases, it's difficult to find the correct link to open a specific site securely."
"Its reliability and the response time of the support team can be better."
"The solution could be faster as the process is very slow."
"A feature I would appreciate seeing enhanced in Cisco Umbrella would be the ability to add or remove agents that we have, instead of just relying on how long the devices have been connected to the platform."
"The configuration of this product is complex. It could be made more user friendly."
"The management server can be made more user friendly and also the database configuration could be made simpler."
"In terms of scalability, I would say that it is a little on the poor side."
"In the future, I would like to see a hybrid option so that we can work both on-premises and in the cloud."
"It's an expensive device."
"I'd like to see more integration with other tools and technologies."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is pricey compared to Cisco Firepower."
"The pricing is pretty fair. It's good."
"Cisco should make the solution cheaper."
"There are no hidden costs with Umbrella. Everything is included in the package."
"It has a reasonable price. It is certainly not as expensive as it used to be. It is in line with other offerings on the market. There are a number of different flavors of Umbrella. They could bring Umbrella SIG down a bit because its price is a little bit high for what it does, but I also understand why its price is high."
"You get what you pay for."
"There are three models for licensing with different feature sets."
"Our costs were negotiated, and they are okay."
"The cost of operations is very low."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Comms Service Provider
6%
Performing Arts
16%
Media Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business50
Midsize Enterprise30
Large Enterprise51
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Zscaler?
Cisco Umbrella and Zscaler Internet Access are two broad-spectrum Internet security solutions that I have tried. Zscaler Internet Access is a good option for carrying out multiple security functi...
Which is the better security solution - Cisco Umbrella or Microsoft Cloud App Security?
Cisco Umbrella is an integral component of the Cisco SASE architecture. It integrates security in a single, cloud-native solution, unifying multiple features like DNS-layer security, threat intelli...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Umbrella?
The pricing for Cisco Umbrella is fair compared to other platforms out there for DNS security. We acquired it as a bundle with other Cisco purchases.
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Also Known As

OpenDNS
Security Network Intrusion Prevention System, IBM Security Network Protection, XGS, GX
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim
Equifax, Christian Hospital Centre
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Infoblox and others in Domain Name System (DNS) Security. Updated: April 2026.
890,124 professionals have used our research since 2012.