Cisco Umbrella vs Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks comparison

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Umbrella and Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.
To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Umbrella vs. Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks Report (Updated: March 2023).
686,748 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"One of the most important features is the security posture check which Umbrella offers when a user accesses any website. That is one of the most unique features that it offers.""It has excellent resilience in cybersecurity. Cybersecurity for my organization is very important because we are a banking organization. We need this security to protect the personal information of our clients. This is very important for our security.""The most valuable features for us include tenant lock, content filtering, and DLP solutions, looking for PII and information being exfiltrated.""You can manage and create policies based on a group of users. It can permit some URLs and block others.""It is user-friendly. It is easy to manage the solution.""It has improved our organization from a security posture perspective. We feel more confident now knowing that we can block phishing attempts or any type of malware that is DNS-related. This is a very nice feature that provides peace of mind.""I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services.""When it comes to hybrid work it's pretty effective. We've got the agents. We can protect people inside our building and, when they're using their laptops out in the field, they're still protected. It's working well."

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"The remediation process is easy compared to other platforms.""The stacked policies, event policies, and routing policies are easy to understand for someone with general knowledge.""You have the ability to create your own expressions for your data. Palo Alto understands that DLP is not the same for all consumers. You might have a particular need to fulfill, and they give you the opportunity to create a custom expression to match the specific format that you have. For a confidential file property that you have in your files, you can add a metadata field. It gives you that opportunity to create that.""Prisma SaaS is very easy to use; it's common sense — it's the best-in-class.""Overall, the cost savings, ease of deployment, and better VPN user experience and performance are valuable.""The most valuable feature of Prisma Cloud-native, in my opinion, is that it assists in identifying, analyzing, and remediating vulnerabilities.""To quarantine and clean a malware file provides a lot of security.""It has predefined or preconfigured rules, which are getting periodically updated. They are providing continuous improvements and periodically updating all search queries that they are looking for. That is one thing that helps us to stay vigilant and focused. If we query our AWS account for any breaches or vulnerabilities with any of the cloud tests, and it alerts us based on these predefined rules. It also provides an option to configure our own rules, and based on these rules, it can query the cloud trail logs, pull the information, and trigger alerts in real-time. I haven't explored this feature much because there are multiple accounts, and we don't have enough time to explore this feature. It also provides multiple integrations. When vulnerabilities or breaches are happening, you should be aware of them immediately. It provides integration with tools such as Slack, PagerDuty so that you can get alerted as soon as the high severity stuff comes up. For example, you have a security group that has allowed public traffic on port 22. As TechOps, you should be aware of this immediately. You cannot scan each machine or look into all security groups to identify it. So, Prisma helps us and alerts us when this kind of high-priority stuff comes up. It has different statistics, analytics, and graphs for data. The description of alerts is also pretty good. They describe what are the possible causes for this and what are the solutions. From Prisma Cloud, you can directly go to the AWS account. When you click on an alert, a resource, or a resource ID, it takes you to the AWS console where you need to log in. If you are already logged in, it will take you to that instance directly, and you can fix the issue there. I have found this feature very useful."

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Cons
"There are some situations where we would like to block things for specific user groups. I know that Umbrella does that, but it's not that easy.... when you want a specific task for specific rules and policies for user groups, you have to go three levels down in the menu, and it's hard to find where you do that task.""The main issue that we have is with the final steps or the full integration and getting rid of Zscaler. The company still has to fall back to Zscaler when something in Umbrella is not working as expected, such as when we enable SSL inspection. When something is not working 100%, the company is falling back to Zscaler.""There are a couple of different pieces that have different portals. I know they're working on getting them all into one portal, but that's probably the biggest thing that needs improvement right now. It's not a single pane of glass yet.""We would like them to add more features to Cisco Umbrella.""They can maybe simplify the configuration. For example, sometimes, the proxy part is quite difficult, and that's why we didn't deploy that.""We faced an issue regarding virtual appliances (VAs) during deployment. They could improve the quality and management of the virtual appliances offered right now. You can't see much because it is a Linux machine, and they have customized it. You don't have any route access to the machine, only seeing limited things in it. When we opened a ticket, they didn't know much about VAs themselves. So, that is where it is lacking right now. I know this will improve in the long run.""There are a couple of interface issues. I know that they say that there are feature enhancements that are noted. For example, we've got the Cisco Meraki security appliances, and there, we geofence our company to where we're allowed to send and receive traffic. So, in our case, by default, we only allow traffic to six different countries, which allows us to effectively prevent traffic for the majority of bad players in the world, but they don't give you an easy way to do that in Cisco Umbrella. With Cisco Meraki, I can specify or pick the countries. I can say that I want to only allow traffic from these six countries, and I'm done. With Cisco Umbrella, I have to rely on the fact that they're going to prevent traffic to other countries. They're going to decide if it's good or bad.""The integration with other solutions is a little complex. If you want to integrate with something like ArcSight or LogRhythm or Splunk, you need to do a lot of configuration. There are no easy ways to implement it."

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"The frequency of updates could be reduced.""My clients would like to see a more feature-rich product.""Sometimes, you have these notifications sent out about changes in App-IDs, modifications in App-IDs, or even the introduction of entirely new App-IDs to replace. Sometimes, the recommendations are followed, but even then, when the package is installed on the firewall, it gets messed up. I remember a particular one was with Tableau, and suddenly, people weren't able to use Tableau, which is an analytics tool for business.""Lacks a hybrid model which has API plus in-line security.""One area for improvement is for them to stay on top of keeping their CVEs on their platform up to date.""They can add some new characteristics. For example, when an incident triggers, they can automatically send a template for a particular match that is related to the policy. We don't have that right now. It is something to improve. There could be more automation for certain actions. For example, for a particular group, it can send an administrator alert to their manager. It was one of the concerns of our customers.""Prisma would be a stronger solution if it could aggregate resources by project or by application. So say we have an application we've developed in AWS and five applications we've developed in Azure. The platform will group it according to those applications, but it's based on the tags we use in Azure, which means I have to rely on development teams to tag resources properly.""When it comes to integration mechanisms, Prisma SaaS does not support reverse proxy type of integrations."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "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."
  • "Cisco Umbrella is expensive and could be cheaper."
  • "When talking about Cisco solutions in general there pricing model is horrible. For example, you can sell a Meraki-based solution, but if the customer starts shopping around, someone is going to have access to the pricing at a level that you cannot compete because they do not have uniform pricing. Not everybody gets fair pricing. Unless you are one of the real major corporations selling the solution your ability to compete is impossible. Cisco will acknowledge the situation and assure you next time it will be in your favor but it never becomes favorable for you. Cisco is not very good in this regard. However, Umbrella is good."
  • "The licensing fee is paid on a yearly basis."
  • "In the region I'm from, that of EMAR, Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia and Africa, our organizations do not have many liquid cash assets, so the price could be better."
  • "The price depends on the use case, and it's a bit linear. But it depends on the customer's strategy and how Cisco plans to optimize the costs."
  • "We were using the free version, and we implemented the paid version about two months ago. I'm paying a fair price, but everything is negotiable with Cisco. One of the benefits that I got by having Cisco Umbrella is the licensing of the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client."
  • "There are no hidden costs with Umbrella. Everything is included in the package."
  • More Cisco Umbrella Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "The licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis and for what we get, the price is good."
  • "Prisma SaaS is more expensive than similar solutions but I think it's worth it."
  • "Prisma is in the middle of the road. It's not the most expensive, but it's not the cheapest. There aren't any additional costs, to my knowledge. I know they have some extra modules, but we didn't use them."
  • "They price their products using credit modules."
  • More Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
    Top Answer: 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… more »
    Top Answer: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… more »
    Top Answer:We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far.
    Top Answer:Overall, the cost savings, ease of deployment, and better VPN user experience and performance are valuable.
    Top Answer:The pricing is reasonable for Palo Alto. They price their products using credit modules. There are various types of modules in each section. I believe there are four different modules. If you want to… more »
    Top Answer:It helps to identify and control shadow IT apps. In terms of its impact on our organization's security, it has been like a sword with two edges. Sometimes, it has proved to be helpful in securing… more »
    Ranking
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    8.8
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    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    OpenDNS
    Palo Alto Networks Prisma SaaS, Prisma SaaS, Palo Alto Networks Aperture, Aperture
    Learn More
    Overview

    Cisco Umbrella offers flexible, cloud-delivered security according to users’ requirements Cisco Umbrella includes secure web gateway, firewall, and cloud access security broker (CASB) functionality all delivered from a single cloud security service. Cisco Umbrella’s protection is extended to devices, remote users, and distributed locations anywhere. As company employees work from many locations and devices, Cisco Umbrella is the easiest way to effectively protect users everywhere in minutes.

    Cisco Umbrella uses machine learning to search for, identify, and even predict malicious domains. By learning from internet activity patterns, this DNS-layer security solution can automatically identify attacker infrastructure being staged for the next threat. These domains are then proactively blocked, protecting networks from potential compromise. Cisco Umbrella analyzes terabytes of data in real time across all markets, geographies, and protocols.

    Cisco Umbrella works with leading IT companies to integrate its security enforcement and intelligence. Built with a bidirectional API, Cisco Umbrella makes it easy to extend protection from on-premises security appliances to cloud controlled devices and sites.

    Cisco Umbrella is suitable for small businesses without dedicated security professionals, as well as for multinational enterprises with complex environments.

    Why use Cisco Umbrella?

    • Simplify security management: Cisco Umbrella is the fastest and easiest way to protect all users within minutes and reduces the number of infections and alerts sent from other security products by stopping threats at the earliest point. With no hardware to install and no software to manually update, ongoing management is simple

    • Reliable reporting: Cisco Umbrella reports show activity for each device or network in the system. Users gain a more complete picture of the security risks facing their organization and can take action to remedy them.

    • Manage and control cloud apps: Umbrella provides visibility into sanctioned and unsanctioned cloud services in use across the enterprise. Users can uncover new services being used, see who is using them, identify potential risk, and block specific applications easily.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Cisco Umbrella stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Some of the major ones are its DNS-based protection, ability to protect users no matter where they are located, stability, and high performance.

    Daniel B., a network specialist at Syswind Kft, writes, “We primarily use the solution as cloud security for our branches. It protects us from direct internet outbreaks. It makes for good flexibility. The solution is very easy to manage. We found the initial setup, for example, to be quite simple. Efficient protection on the DNS level and even higher. The sandboxing feature analyses and handles the complicated security risks.”

    Victor M., SOC & Security Services Director at BEST, notes, “It provides security for the remote workers and it helps to improve enterprise security in a very easy way. We mainly enjoy web software protection capabilities. It prevents the end-users from getting into bad sites or sites that potentially could have malware or could be phishing. It helps end-users avoid the wrong sites. The solution works very smoothly. The user interface is good.”

    Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks is a powerful cloud access security brokerage (CASB) and SaaS solution that is designed to fully handle an organization’s SaaS security needs. It is a comprehensive package that offers both in-line as well as API-based protection. Users can use Prisma SaaS to complement whatever security tools they currently employ.

    Prisma SaaS Benefits

    Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Prisma SaaS include:

    • Adaptability. Prisma SaaS can be adapted to satisfy any and all SaaS needs that an organization might have. When users choose Prisma SaaS, they gain access to a vast suite of integrations. These enable users to connect with the most widely used and common SaaS applications on the market. An organization is given the ability to take stock of features or functions that they might be missing and employ the integration to make up for whatever they feel they are missing.
    • Security. Prisma SaaS comes with a wealth of security features that users can leverage to handle all of their security needs. Users can set specific security policies to classify data in a way that enables the solution’s artificial intelligence and machine learning software to track them to prevent losses from taking place. The solution’s AI and ML can also block known malware, identify new malware, and block these new threats before they can do harm.
    • Automated updates. Organizations do not need to devote resources to ensure that Prisma SaaS’s software remains up to date. It automatically updates when an update is ready to launch. Users can focus on using the product and allow the solution to manage its updates on its own.

    Prisma SaaS Features

    • Centralized management and control. Prisma SaaS is controllable from a single centralized location. Users can manage every aspect of the solution in a simplified way. They do not need to master the controls on a variety of consoles to achieve the highest level of value from it. All of the controls are located in one place, which also makes it easy for users to learn how to use them. Additionally, it enables users to view all of their critical data in a single location without having to struggle to find the data that they need.
    • Threat visualization and reporting. Users gain the ability to break down potential threats and incidents in ways that provide deep insights. Prisma SaaS can visually represent threats that have not yet been actualized as well as events that have occurred. Additionally, it can create detailed reports that can provide users with the information that they need to secure themselves from future harm.
    • User behavior monitoring. Prisma SaaS’s AI and ML capabilities enable the solution to spot unusual user behavior that might signal that a user’s credentials have been stolen.

    Reviews from Real Users

    Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Network is a solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are the ability to customize data search expressions and the ability to identify, analyze, and troubleshoot threats from a single solution.

    Gabriel F., the senior service delivery engineer at the Netdata Innovation Center, writes, “You have the ability to create your own expressions for your data. Palo Alto understands that DLP is not the same for all consumers. You might have a particular need to fulfill, and they give you the opportunity to create a custom expression to match the specific format that you have. For a confidential file property that you have in your files, you can add a metadata field. It gives you the opportunity to create that.”

    Angell D., a senior engineer at Cloudrise, says, "The most valuable feature of Prisma Cloud-native, in my opinion, is that it assists in identifying, analyzing, and remediating vulnerabilities."

    Offer
    Learn more about Cisco Umbrella
    Learn more about Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks
    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
    University of Arkansas
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm14%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Educational Organization8%
    Healthcare Company8%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company21%
    Comms Service Provider10%
    Financial Services Firm9%
    Government6%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company20%
    Financial Services Firm13%
    Comms Service Provider8%
    Energy/Utilities Company6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business37%
    Midsize Enterprise24%
    Large Enterprise38%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business21%
    Midsize Enterprise16%
    Large Enterprise64%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business44%
    Midsize Enterprise25%
    Large Enterprise31%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business17%
    Midsize Enterprise14%
    Large Enterprise69%
    Buyer's Guide
    Cisco Umbrella vs. Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks
    March 2023
    Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Umbrella vs. Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks and other solutions. Updated: March 2023.
    686,748 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco Umbrella is ranked 1st in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) with 39 reviews while Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks is ranked 5th in Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) with 10 reviews. Cisco Umbrella is rated 8.8, while Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco Umbrella writes "We can see all of our locations in one place and only have to make changes once for all our locations". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks writes "Supports custom expressions, helps with compliance, and integrates well with Azure AD". Cisco Umbrella is most compared with Zscaler Internet Access, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Palo Alto Networks DNS Security, Fortinet FortiGate SWG and Zscaler SASE, whereas Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks is most compared with Netskope CASB, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Zscaler Internet Access, Zscaler CASB and Qualys VMDR. See our Cisco Umbrella vs. Prisma SaaS by Palo Alto Networks report.

    See our list of best Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) vendors.

    We monitor all Cloud Access Security Brokers (CASB) reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.