Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center Reviews

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center serves as my primary tool for centralized firewall policy management and monitoring security events across multiple devices. On a daily basis, I use it to manage access control policies, review traffic logs, and monitor intrusion events generated by Intrusion Prevention Systems. It helps me ensure that only required traffic is allowed and any suspicious activity is quickly identified. For example, recently I noticed a spike in an intrusion event on one of the segments through Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. I analyzed the IPS alert and identified the connection matching a new signature. Based on that, I updated the policy to block the traffic and monitored the log to confirm the activity was mitigated.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is also focused on policies optimization and regular reviews. Over time, firewall rules can become complex, so I use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to clean up unused and redundant rules and ensure policies are properly structured. I also use it for reporting and visibility, which helps during audits and troubleshooting. Beyond daily monitoring, it plays an important role in maintaining overall security posture and keeping the firewall configuration efficient.

The best features of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center are the centralized management and strong security visibility. The most useful feature for me is centralized policy management, where I can create and enforce access control policies across multiple firewalls from a single console. It saves a lot of time and ensures consistency. Another key feature is IPS visibility. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center provides detailed intrusion events and signatures, which help in quickly identifying and responding to threats.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has had a positive impact mainly by improving centralized control and visibility across our firewall environment. Earlier, managing multiple firewalls individually was time-consuming and inconsistent. With Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we can manage policies from a single console, which has improved efficiency and reduced configuration errors. It has also enhanced our security posture with better visibility into traffic and IPS events. We are able to detect and respond to threats more quickly, which helps in reducing risk and improving overall incident response time.

One area where Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center can be improved is the user interface. At times, it can feel complex, especially for new users, and navigation between different sections could be more intuitive. Another challenge is performance when dealing with large-scale environments. Loading logs or reports can sometimes be slow, especially when there is a high volume of data. Policy deployment can also take some time, depending on the number of devices and the size of the configuration. Optimizing deployment speed would be helpful.

I have been using Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for around two to three years as part of managing firewall policies and monitoring security events in our environment.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has been stable overall in my experience. We have not faced any major outages from the platform itself. Policy management, device communications, and event logging have been consistent in day-to-day operations. There can be occasional slowdowns when handling large logs or during policy deployment, but those are more performance-related and not stability issues.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center scales well in enterprise environments in my experience. As we add more firewall devices and network segments, Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is able to manage them centrally without major issues. It supports managing multiple devices and policies from a single console, which makes scaling operations easier. However, as the environment grows, performance can depend on proper sizing of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center appliances, especially for handling large volumes of logs and events. Scalability is good, but it needs proper resource planning.

We have worked with Cisco support for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center in a few cases. Overall, the support has been reliable. For critical issues, the response is usually quick and they follow a structured troubleshooting approach. For more complex problems, it can take some time, but they provide detailed guidance and follow up until resolution. Cisco's documentation and knowledge base are quite strong, which helps with resolving issues without always raising a ticket.

Before Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we were mainly managing firewalls individually using device-level management tools like Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager. The challenge was that managing policies on each firewall separately was time-consuming and increased the chances of configuration inconsistencies. We moved to Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to have a centralized management approach where we can control policies, monitor events, and manage multiple devices from a single console. This significantly improved efficiency and consistency in our firewall operations.

My experience with pricing and licensing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is that it is generally on the higher side compared to some alternatives. The initial setup cost can be significant because it involves licensing along with compatible hardware or virtual deployment. Licensing is usually feature-based and dependent on factors such as threat protection and the number of devices being managed. However, from an enterprise perspective, the cost is justified by the centralized security features and overall visibility it provides. It reduces manual effort and improves security management.

We have seen a return on investment with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, mainly in terms of time saving and operational efficiency. For example, earlier making policy changes across multiple firewalls was a manual and time-consuming task, taking around twenty to thirty minutes per device. With Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we can push policies centrally to multiple devices in just a few minutes, which has significantly reduced the effort and time. We have also seen fewer configuration errors because everything is managed from a single console instead of handling each firewall separately. While it has not reduced the number of employees, it has definitely improved team productivity and helped us handle security operations much more efficiently.

My experience with pricing and licensing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is that it is generally on the higher side compared to some alternatives. The initial setup cost can be significant because it involves licensing along with compatible hardware or virtual deployment. Licensing is usually feature-based and dependent on factors such as threat protection and the number of devices being managed. However, from an enterprise perspective, the cost is justified by the centralized security features and overall visibility it provides. It reduces manual effort and improves security management.

I use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for configuring all the routing policies that I need to do on the firewall, and it acts as a control plane for all the policies that I want to implement through the firewall.

I find it easy to integrate Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center with the company's security posture, as I have integrated it with Splunk as a SIEM solution to have all the correlation rules on the firewall redirected to Splunk, and it integrates easily without any problem.

I cannot answer how useful it is to have the ability to work with the cloud and on-premises version of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center because all my deployments are on-premises solutions.

I find that for the interfacing of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center in general, there is no specific feature because I am using all the features and all the tabs available for configuring my policy. However, I consider Talos feedback that Cisco provides as free threat intelligence to be the most valuable for me and for the operation of the security policy in my organization.

So far, I find that everything related to Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is adequate. The only thing that was missing in the portfolio was SD-WAN, which I would like to use similar to Fortinet. Now Cisco has published the 120 series and the 1100 series, which support SD-WAN features in the firewall. I have not tried it myself yet, but I intend to use it and configure it as an SD-WAN gateway. When I use it, I will be able to provide feedback on whether there is anything new or if everything is adequate, but I have not used it or configured it by my hand till now.

I have been working with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for two years.

I would rate the stability of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center as nine out of ten.

Positive

I have not used the scalability features of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center. However, for the 3000 new series and the 4000, we can make a cluster. I think it can go up to eight units or sixteen units, but I have not used it till now.

I rate the technical support from Cisco as ten out of ten. They are the most supportive vendor that I have met.

Positive

The setup of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center that I tried was on-premises, and everything was in a moderate way. It is not very difficult and not very easy. I simply followed the steps in the installation and configuration guide to understand what to do.

In my opinion, the dashboard in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is easy to operate and easy to use. However, the implementation of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center itself on any VMware machine may require some steps and some workarounds. The operation of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center after the initial install is an easy interface with a friendly user interface.

I find the pricing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to be very reasonable, as they offer the license for both virtual and hardware options. For the virtual option, they have minimum licensing, such as a license that can manage up to only one device. If I have only one firewall with high availability deployment, it becomes very reasonable when I purchase Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center relative to my deployment or actual need. I find variable prices according to the deployment, so it will be reasonable.

I can compare Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to Palo Alto for the data center firewall and Fortinet for the perimeter firewall or the edge firewall.

The comparison among these three vendors depends on the price, the performance, and every feature versus its price. I cannot provide a general comparison.

I have not used any automation features in Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center till now.

So far, I am very satisfied with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and I have not considered additional features such as the analytics part of the product.

I work directly with Cisco for the purchase. We purchase our equipment directly from Cisco.

I am very satisfied with the functionality part of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and would not like to add anything, including AI functionalities.

I would rate this product a nine out of ten overall.

I use FMC for managing my device and utilizing Cisco features effectively, especially when I define a quality switch and have a license to protect my network from my device by using my regular model or tricks. It is easier if I use FMC. 

Frankly speaking, when I want to see logs, attacks, and incoming tricks to my network, FMC helps me to have the visibility. It is easy to use basics, and that is why I use FMC.

I like the dashboard since it gives me a lot of information. However, Cisco should improve the local unit Secure since it is not quite smooth to see real-time graphics compared to other devices. 

It provides full visibility of my devices, whether I have six or ten devices. When I want to check the stats of my devices and of the Internet connectivity, I love the dashboard of Cisco Pencil.

I expect more integration with AI. I expect Cisco to be easier for users in India, especially for junior users. For a junior one, it may somehow be complex, especially when configuring something. I remember version 6.4 had an integration with Eddie, allowing me to define a policy according to my users, however, the latest version, lacks this integration. The logging of FMC should be improved as it does not offer real-time solutions like DazaSodo.

I have used the solution for a bit more than two weeks now.

I would go with a rating of three out of ten for the stability issues.

I would rate scalability capabilities as ten out of ten.

I would rate customer service as eight out of ten. 

Positive

I just set up the device. It takes control files, frankly speaking. However, when I try to integrate with the existing company's network infrastructure with a running and good migration plan, it took about three hours.

Most of the time, I do the setup by myself. That said, I have a consultant that helps.

I do not see a significant return on investment for that. There are a lot of solutions which can provide the same features. Cisco is more of a brand, yet it is more expensive.

I would rate setup cost as four for now.

I did look at other vendors also. My area of specialization is Secure, so I try to work with different vendors with a specific security solution.

The overall product rating is eight out of ten. It is a good product.

We installed Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center in a hospital environment to protect our network. We have it for our wireless access points, LAN, web, and the applications we are currently using.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has been protecting our network. The fact that it's working as mentioned is its main value.

Licensing has been a challenge with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and personally, I would consider switching to another solution. We are thinking of taking a Fortinet or another solution we're currently evaluating.

Licensing cost has been the main challenge. I don't use advanced analytics with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center.

Currently, there aren't any challenges with integration between Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center and our existing IT environment based on what we have on the ground. The only challenges we face are licensing and support.

I would rate the impact of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center on automation as five out of ten. I haven't seen anything extraordinary.

I didn't take part in the installation of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center because I manage the team, and one of my team members handled the installation. The installation process took approximately two to three days.

I would rate the support of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center as six out of ten.

Neutral

The deployment for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center was not difficult because we received guidance during the process.

If there wasn't going to be any benefit from using Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, we wouldn't have deployed it in the first place. That should be the number one requirement to deploy any solution in your organization. It has to be beneficial, or you shouldn't try it.

My colleague in charge of the network would be in a better position to provide additional details about the solution. The overall rating for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is 6 out of 10.

I use the solution in my company as it serves as a perimeter firewall. The tool provides firewall protection for users.

The most valuable feature of the solution is that it acts as an all-in-one firewall, including IPS, IDS, security intelligence, and IP policy protection, so it is not just a layer two and layer four firewall but a layer seven firewall. With the tool, you can see traffic beyond the IP and TCP, which gives application visibility, which is the best feature. It offers security intelligence and updates itself with policies, improving policies. It updates IP policies based on geography, so we don't want traffic worldwide.

The tool is a little bit pricey. I was not involved much with finance, but it appeared to be really expensive.

It is very complicated to push updates and it is one thing I don't like. If you want to patch the system, you have to patch a lot of things. You just don't patch one thing. If you want to patch the firewall, you have to patch something or two or three other things before you patch the firewall.

The setup process could be made easier for beginners.

I have experience working with the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for years. I am just a customer of the solution.

It is a very stable solution as we just configure it and don't touch it after the initial conversation unless we want to add a new role or a new policy.

My company is a very small management agency. We only protect users in one area, so there is no room for expansion.

Nowadays, it doesn't matter how many users there are since all are secure users. All of them work from everywhere and anywhere, but they don't use the firewall in the office. We also have the old firewall that users with VPN are permitted to use. We have about seven hundred users.

Cisco used to be really good with the solution's technical support but nowadays they are late to respond. I rate the technical support a seven out of ten.

Neutral

The tool's deployment is not complex. It can be challenging for a new user. As I am familiar with the setup phase, the process is good, especially since I have experience with Cisco products.

A third-party company helps us deploy the tool.

The tool is worth the money. First of all, the tool offers protection from ransomware. The management center made it easy for me to push policy, which is the default policy that comes with it. The product is easy to learn, so I don't have to learn any technology again. It is just the hardware, and the initial purchase is more expensive than I thought, but it's really worth the money after that.

You have to buy a license for malware protection. You also have to buy a license for URL protection. You can buy it initially when you buy the product. You have to renew that license and protection again every two, three years, or five years. My license offers all the protection, like malware protection, VPN protection, IDS, IPS, and endpoint protection.

The management center is just the management, so it is nothing. The tool is a dummy box that allows you to push the policy to the firewall. The firewall is separate from the management center. The management center does nothing except create and push a policy, and after that, you can leave it alone. The management center is not a protection but a box to manage the real firewall.

In my company, we only manage a pair of servers, so we don't have many as we are a very small organization. We only have a couple of firewalls with one management center.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is different from Cisco Firewall. If you don't have a Cisco Firewall, you don't need a Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center.

I recommend the tool to others.

I am not happy with the tool's support.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use the product as a traditional firewall. We also use it for advanced malware detection. The tool detects and blocks any malware that tries to penetrate the environment. The product also provides application visibility and control. It is a Layer 7 firewall. We know what kind of application traffic is being transmitted to the tool. We also have Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System. Any intrusions from outside or inside are detected and mitigated by the solution.

Advanced Malware Protection and Intrusion Prevention System are valuable features. These features are more productive because they operate on signatures. We also have a threat intelligence feed from Talos. Talos provides a lot of rich threat intelligence feeds for blocking off indicators of compromises.

The product must improve its performance. When we push policies from the console, it takes a lot of time. It takes five to seven minutes to push one policy. If someone pushes a wrong policy and there is an outage in the banking system, they would have to wait six to seven minutes to revert it. We have highlighted this issue to Cisco.

A year ago, we told Cisco that we need APIs for integration with SOAR for pushing policies. We cannot push policies or run playbooks from SOAR to block any IOCs on the web and email gateway because Cisco doesn’t expose the APIs. It is one thing for which we have been following up with Cisco for the last year, but I don't think they've developed the API integration. Palo Alto and Fortinet provide this feature to their users.

I have been using the solution for the last five to six years.

We haven't seen any performance degradation or outages on the tool. It is stable.

The tool is scalable.

Cisco's support and services are far superior to any other security product in Pakistan. We have a Cisco-based team stationed in Pakistan. That's one of the reasons why we opted for the product. Cisco has a huge knowledge base. The technical support is excellent.

Positive

We were using Juniper. We replaced it with Cisco ASA. After 2015, when next-generation firewalls were introduced, we switched to them.

The initial setup was easy. Integrating Cisco within the existing network is not a challenge. Cisco products are easily integrated, especially when we have a Cisco-based ecosystem. I don't see any challenge in it. Integrating Cisco with SOAR is a challenge.

The return on investment is good.

The solution’s pricing is reasonable. The licensing cost depends on the versions, the capacity we need, and the licensing model. We pay separately for each Cisco tool. We use many Cisco products. When we procure a Cisco license or a product, we procure a three-year subscription cost and capitalize it with the procurement of the product. After three years, we pay an annual subscription fee for the products.

Pakistan’s geography has some limitations because we don't get the support and services from Palo Alto, but we get it from Cisco. Apart from routers and switches, we have a lot of Cisco products. We have Cisco Firepower Next-Generation Firewall on the perimeter. We have Cisco at the core level as a data center firewall. We also have an email security gateway and Stealthwatch. These are good and stable products. However, when it comes to security, Palo Alto and Fortinet outweigh Cisco.

The solution is good and stable. We need a five-year roadmap of whether we want to develop a security operation center or integrate the tool with other products. We need to consider these aspects before choosing the solution. However, there won't be a challenge if we go across the board with Cisco products.

As far as security is concerned, Cisco has invested heavily in security for the last five to six years. We opted for a red team/blue team service from Cisco and evaluated it. During the evaluation phase, we found out that Cisco is not really good at it. They started the service two to three years ago. So we opted for another vendor.

Similarly, Cisco has to improve Cisco Secure Managed Detection and Response because it's a recent service. I don't find value in it when compared with FireEye or CrowdStrike. Cisco is not a services company. It's a product company that has evolved into a services company. Customers value different services. Cisco needs to improve its services.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten.

I use the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for premises access security and technical actions.

Malware detection, URL filtering, and antivirus are the most beneficial features for our security management. The platform has three main components: filters, hardware, and antivirus. We use the standard approach for automation and integration. The person in charge of management follows the rules and policies of the equipment and handles operations. However, we haven't set up any notifications, so it's mostly manual.

We use the suggested standard policies that come with the equipment. We don't put much effort into customizing these policies, which we know is a risk. We're moving to a more advanced IT area that will change how we manage the firewall policies. Cisco offers many ways to manage the equipment, but our team lacks extensive knowledge. We're moving these responsibilities to a specialized security team.

I have been working with the product for four to six years. 

For stability, I'd give the tool a nine point five out of ten. It's very stable, and we didn't have any complaints about that issue.

I'd rate the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center's scalability as eight out of ten. To put the firewall into production, we had to move some networks and configure additional tools.

We open cases directly with Cisco.

Positive

The setup was straightforward. We used the option to learn network traffic and improve policies based on Cisco's recommendations. Deployment took about a month—two weeks in lab mode, followed by planning integration with active traffic and implementation. For maintenance, we had about ten people involved during the project, but they were only part of the initial setup. We don't require ongoing maintenance for this solution.

Seven people were involved in deployment: three from the reseller, two from our OEM, one management team member, and myself as the project's VP.

As for pricing, the tool is expensive for us. I'd rate it eight out of ten on a scale where ten is the most expensive.

I would recommend the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to others. Deploying and managing policies and actions to cover network issues is easy. The policies are straightforward to configure, and you can easily manage the network with some support.

Overall, I'd rate the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center as eight out of ten.

We have utilized Cisco Secure Firewalls for both perimeter defense and internal segmentation purposes. Our use cases include implementing secure gateways between IT and OT networks within manufacturing environments, where divisions require separation for operational purposes. This ensures that internal OT networks, crucial for manufacturing pumps, remain distinct and secure from IT networks. It plays a pivotal role in maintaining the integrity and security of these segregated networks.

The Cisco Management Center provides centralized management for a variety of Secure devices and policies. Typically, Cisco's centralized management is facilitated through the DNA Center platform, offering different flavors of DNA solutions. Although Cisco Prime has been utilized to some extent in the past, the predominant method for centralized management revolves around Cisco DNA.

In our organization, we utilize Cisco Firewalls along with Fortinet for monitoring and analyzing work traffic. Cisco continues to maintain its position as one of the top leaders in the industry. With a strong lineup of products, Cisco's brand reputation in-network services and equipment is widely accepted and trusted. Selling Cisco products is generally easier due to their established name and reputation.

The Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center offers numerous benefits, including the stability and quality of its products, which feature almost all the latest market-leading features. This ensures a long product life cycle, reducing the need for frequent tech refreshes. Cisco's robust lifecycle management and clear roadmaps enable customers to plan refreshes and replacements without unexpected downtime, contributing significantly to operational efficiency. Moreover, Cisco's exceptional support minimizes customer losses due to unplanned downtime, while ensuring smooth transitions and upgrades.

Working with a single vendor significantly reduces the complexity of future security operations. This approach eliminates situations where products from different vendors fail to communicate effectively, leading to disjointed management and increased reliance on technical support for troubleshooting and break-fix tasks.

Cisco Secure products, particularly the Cisco Secure Firewall, offer robust defense mechanisms against denial-of-service and distributed denial-of-service attacks. In many instances, despite the occurrence of such attacks targeting customer networks, the impact on operations was significantly minimized due to the presence of Cisco Secure Firewall at the perimeter. While these attacks were detected, their disruptive effects were mitigated effectively, highlighting the critical role of the Cisco Secure Firewall in safeguarding customer operations.

One of the most valuable features of Cisco Secure Firewalls is their seamless integration with other Cisco products. This integration streamlines the process of creating policies and correlation rules, making management more efficient through a centralized management and monitoring portal. This ease of integration is particularly beneficial for networking admins in mid to large enterprises, where Cisco equipment is predominantly used.

Areas for improvement include pricing points and the range of products available at any given time. Cisco could potentially address these aspects more effectively to better accommodate the needs of customers across various tiers and levels.

We have been using it for approximately twenty-four years.

In terms of stability, conducting a pilot test before integration proves invaluable as it ensures thorough testing of policies and rule definitions prior to production deployment. Once this testing phase is completed and the product is integrated into the environment, it typically exhibits high stability. Challenges may arise occasionally due to software bugs in releases or the need to integrate legacy devices. In such instances, assistance from Cisco technical support is sought to address these challenges effectively.

The solution is highly scalable.

Cisco's technical support stands out as the key differentiator among other product brands in the market. Cisco consistently ranks as the top choice for technical support, thanks to the expertise of its engineers and the promptness with which defective materials are replaced, provided that all warranties and contracts are in place. It continues to be top-notch and arguably the best in the industry, providing valuable assistance whenever needed.

The initial setup is typically straightforward, especially for those familiar with Cisco's command lines, menus, and layouts, which are widely recognized in the industry. Given our extensive experience with Cisco over the years, there's minimal learning curve for us. However, newcomers may find it slightly challenging initially.

The first step of the development process involves assessing the network topology and design to ensure proper placement and sizing of the solution. Once these aspects are addressed, integrating the product becomes more straightforward. Typically, this involves taking inventory followed by setting up a test or pilot environment to verify connectivity and ensure that applied policies won't disrupt operations. After successfully integrating all implementation details, the solution is deployed in the production environment. This sequential approach helps to ensure a smooth deployment process.

Despite potentially higher upfront expenses, the overall operational costs are significantly reduced due to its efficiency. Consequently, the return on investment is notably faster or greater compared to competing products from other brands.

One of the advantages of Cisco is its range of flexible licensing options. Whether customers are seeking a lighter version or a comprehensive feature set, Cisco offers various licensing tiers to accommodate different use cases. This versatility ensures that customers can tailor their solutions to their specific needs without overcommitting. Additionally, since most features can be enabled or disabled through licensing, customers have the flexibility to activate additional functionalities as needed without requiring a complete replacement of their existing setup.

To date, we've successfully sold these products to approximately 125 customers. The attrition rate away from Cisco has been minimal, with only around 10% to 15% of customers opting for alternatives.

I highly recommend Cisco as the market leader. Whatever solution a customer is seeking from Cisco, the company undoubtedly possesses the capabilities and technical expertise to provide the right solution and seamlessly integrate it into any complex environment. However, it's crucial to carefully size and plan the solution during the initial stages to avoid any misconfigurations or introduction of unsuitable products into the infrastructure. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

I use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center in my company to compare it with other firewall products. In our company, my supervisor wants me to check and compare three firewall products and figure out which product works the best, making it one of the projects in my organization for which I need to make a report.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center's GUI is very user-friendly, and it allows me to use Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM). I really like Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, including its areas like policy-making and rules that can be defined very easily. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center provides a very good interface.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center's dashboard needs to be modified.

Due to the lack of enough tutorials available online, I face problems with Cisco. There needs to be enough sources provided by Cisco from where users can learn more about Cisco products. It would be great if Cisco could provide users with tutorials that help with dashboards and CLM since Cisco does not provide much information in the aforementioned areas.

I have been using Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center for two months. I use the solution's latest version, along with Cisco ASAv and Cisco Modeling Labs.

It is a stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten. The firewall is good.

Scalability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.

I currently use firewall products from Palo Alto and FortGate, along with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, to make a comparison report between all three products.

The product installation was easy since I had received proper documentation from Cisco to help me. The documentation did not have many tutorials like the ones available for Palo Alto or Fortinet on YouTube and the internet. Even on the Fortinet website, there are free tutorials available for users, which are very helpful when it comes to the area of management, such as how to use the dashboards and how to make rules. Cisco ASA ASDM is very easy to install.

Compared to the other products that I deal with, I feel that Cisco products are easy to install.

The solution can be deployed in two to three hours.

I use the free version of the product.

As I work in the cybersecurity department of my company, I had to compare Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center with the firewall products offered by other vendors in the market, like the ones from Fortinet and Palo Alto.

I prefer Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center since many of the organizations in the market prefer to use it because it is a great tool.

My supervisor told me to do some simple configurations with the product and take screenshots to present it in a project format.

I recommend the solution to those who plan to use it.

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center generally works well, but when it comes to the free version of the product, I can't do many things with it. In Palo Alto's free version, users can use and do everything in the product, but in Cisco's free version, there are a lot of things I can't do. I think the free version of Cisco should provide all the features so that new users can learn them and know how to use them.

I rate the overall tool a seven out of ten.

It acts as a security center that deals with anti-malware, antivirus, and protection against network attacks.

It acts as a safeguard against external threats such as viruses, malware, and offers URL scanning. Cisco Secure Firewall's strength lies in its regular updates and automated blocking of threats, reducing the need for manual intervention.

The most valuable aspects are the antivirus and URL filtering.

Cisco Firepower has been effective in solving various problems, but it could be improved by making it simpler and more user-friendly like Fortinet. Additionally, making it available for offline practice through an emulator would be beneficial.

I've been working in my organization for the past six months, and during this time, we deployed it in our office. Previously, we were using a basic Cisco ASA firewall, and we managed it using the ASDM. Now, we've upgraded to a more advanced firewall and manage it through the MMC.

I would rate it a seven out of ten. 

Scalability needs to be improved and I would rate it a six out of ten. 

They don't offer sufficient materials on their website, unlike Cisco. Moreover, the FMC (Firepower Management Center) is expensive, and there is a lack of helpful materials available online. The existing documentation can be quite extensive and challenging to comprehend.

Positive

They opted for the Cisco Firepower Management Center due to new, more complex threats that the basic ASA couldn't effectively handle. They did evaluate other options like Fortinet, Palo Alto, and Juniper, but their management recommended Cisco, leading them to choose it.

I rate it on a scale of one to ten, with one being highly difficult and ten being very easy. In terms of technical analysis, I would rate it a three. It's also rather difficult to deploy.

It took about one or two hours consistently because it's quite heavy to deploy.Initially, I need to set up a virtual machine, which is the first step. After that, I deploy it as a virtual machine, and then I go through the process of configuring the license features and adding the devices. This is a somewhat lengthy task.

It is rather expensive.

I will advise them to explore simpler solutions like Palo Alto Networks or Fortinet UCC, which offer more straightforward options. I would rate it six out of ten.