We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Cisco Secure Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."
"Security management tool that's easy to integrate and easy to work with. No issues found with its stability and scalability."
"Customers are more inclined towards FortiGate because of application control, web filtering, and anti-spam features. The support from the FortiGate team is good, and price-wise, it is affordable."
"The solution is very user-friendly."
"The most valuable features are SD-WAN, application control, IPS control, and FortiSandbox."
"The security on offer is very good."
"It has improved our organization with control data."
"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."
"What I have used the most and received the most benefit from is the IPsec technology."
"Cisco IOS Security has many good features, but compared to other solutions, it has a more user-friendly interface with steps to apply and manage rules. Another good part of the solution is that it's more straightforward."
"Completely integrates branch offices with perimeter security."
"The technical support is good."
"Cisco IOS allows us to keep the same security features as our principal offices."
"The capabilities for scalability with this product are huge"
"The most valuable features are DNS service and shell self-service within a network."
"Technical support for this solution is very good."
"The most valuable feature is the Intrusion Prevention System."
"The VPN feature is the most valuable to us because it accomplishes the task well. We're able to do everything we need to do."
"I have found the stability of this solution really good. This is why I use it."
"Cisco's engineer helped us with a lot of scripting to see what existed. Previously, we didn't have a proper policy. In fact, we didn't have any policy because we didn't have any firewall for the data center, so generating a policy was a big challenge. Cisco's engineer helped us to do some scripting and find out what kind of policy we can have and organize those policies. That was nice."
"One of the most valuable features of Firepower 7.0 is the "live log" type feature called Unified Event Viewer. That view has been really good in helping me get to data faster, decreasing the amount of time it takes to find information, and allowing me to fix problems faster. I've found that to be incredibly valuable because it's a lot easier to get to some points of data now."
"The initial setup was completely straightforward."
"The most valuable features are the flexibility and level of security that this solution provides."
"It is much better than most of the other firewalls that I have worked with."
"The integration with third-party tools may be something that they should work on."
"There are a lot of bugs I have found in the solution and it is difficult to upgrade. These areas need improvement."
"I have to say that the initial setup was complex. The deployment took a few days to get set up. Initially, we were using an IPVanish. We switched to this tool since we thought it would be easier. But it turns out it wasn't easier to set up and run."
"The setup is pretty complex and not easy to implement."
"The inability to scale the FortiAnalyzer to match our growth necessitates the purchase of new hardware."
"A sandbox would be good in order to be able to inspect the emails containing spam and be able to validate the emails that contain malware, prior to delivering to the customer."
"Lacks training for new features."
"Scalability for Fortinet FortiGate needs to be improved. SD-WAN security for this solution also needs some improvement."
"In the security portfolio from Cisco, the issue is marketing. Cisco is still seen primarily as an enterprise network player rather than being acknowledged as a security vendor."
"There are the usual bugs that are inherent to some software upgrades. Sometimes this provides some unexpected issues, however, it happens with all brands all the time."
"It would be ideal if the solution had more capacity."
"Cisco IOS Security should improve its functionalities."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"Cisco IOS Security could improve its security features. There are competitors that have some additional security features, such as Fortinet FortiGate. Additionally, there should be better synchronization with Cisco IOS Security and other vendors, and improved AI features would be beneficial."
"Cisco very slowly introduces and implements the products, unlike other brands."
"I wish it would be more like the next generation firewall technology. There should be more selection between the application and filtering."
"The user interface isn't as good as it could be. They should work to improve it. It would make it easier for customer management if it was easier to use."
"The scalability is a bit limiting, to be honest. In terms of when you look to changing landscape in terms of threats, I think to me, my personal it's a bit limiting."
"Managing various product integrations, such as Umbrella, is challenging."
"One thing that Cisco could improve is the GUI. The graphic user interface should be more user-friendly."
"10Gb interfaces should be available on more models."
"Tech support could not answer all of our questions. I had to do research on the web to solve my issues."
"I would like for them to develop better integration with other security platforms."
"The configuration in Firepower Management Center is very slow. Deployment takes two to three minutes. You spend a lot of time on modifications. Whereas, in FortiGate, you press a button, and it takes one second."
Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Meraki MX, Fortinet FortiOS, Netgate pfSense, OPNsense and Palo Alto Networks URL Filtering with PAN-DB, whereas Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Cisco Secure Firewall report.
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