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System Engineer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Jan 25, 2021
Stable, scalable, and flexible, with good support
Pros and Cons
  • "It's a flexible solution."
  • "The configuration is an area that needs improvement."

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco ASA for traffic control.

What is most valuable?

It's a flexible solution.

What needs improvement?

The configuration is an area that needs improvement.

In the next release, I would like to see the UI include or provide web access, and more integration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco ASA Firewall for five years.

We are not using the latest version, as it is not available.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a stable solution and we have not had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable product. We have approximately 2,000 users in our organization.

We have plans to continue to use it.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support provides us with good service.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was straightforward. It was easy for us because we have experience.

It was already deployed when I arrived.

We have two or three guys for deployment and maintenance.

What other advice do I have?

This is a product that I would recommend to others.

I would rate Cisco ASA Firewall a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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reviewer1126164 - PeerSpot reviewer
Programming Analyst at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 20
Jan 24, 2021
A stable, advanced threat detection solution with a straightforward setup, but with room for improvement on the console visualization
Pros and Cons
  • "The customer service/technical support is very good with this solution."
  • "An area of improvement for this solution is the console visualization."

What is most valuable?

The feature I have found most valuable is the IPS advanced threat detection for removing ransomware and malware.

What needs improvement?

An area of improvement for this solution is the console visualization.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable.

How are customer service and technical support?

The customer service/technical support is very good with this solution.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and it took two weeks to deploy. Currently, 5000 employees use this solution in our company.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution was chosen because of its price compared to other similar solutions.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to other users.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Integrator
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Cisco Secure Firewall
January 2026
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Firewall. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: January 2026.
881,114 professionals have used our research since 2012.
IT manager at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Real User
Top 10
Jan 19, 2021
Very simple to deploy and stable
Pros and Cons
  • "Simple to deploy, stable."
  • "Technical support takes a long time to respond."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case of Cisco ASA Firewall is to protect our environment. We are customers of Cisco and I'm a network engineer. 

What is most valuable?

The solution is simple to deploy and stable. 

What needs improvement?

Technical support could be improved, they take a long time to respond. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using this solution for 10 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable solution. 

How was the initial setup?

Initial setup was relatively simple, it took around six months and I deployed myself. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution a nine out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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MD.SIHAB TALUKDAR - PeerSpot reviewer
System Engineer at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Top 10
Jan 17, 2021
Stable and reasonably-priced, and the support is okay
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is stability."
  • "The performance should be improved."

What is our primary use case?

This is a product that is used at the infrastructure level to protect the network from outside traffic.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is stability.

What needs improvement?

When using this product, our network is slower. The performance should be improved.

The installation could be made easier.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall for more than two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This is a stable product and we plan to continue using it.

How are customer service and technical support?

Support from Cisco is good enough.

How was the initial setup?

The installation can be easy, although it is slightly more difficult to install than Fortinet FortiGate. One day is enough for deployment but it takes a long time to configure.

What about the implementation team?

I deployed Firepower with support from the team in India.

We have a team of three people for deployment and maintenance.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price of Firepower is not bad compared to other products.

What other advice do I have?

This is a good product and I recommend it.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Mohd.Rivai - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Security Engineer at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Top 10
Jan 15, 2021
Good UI but too expensive and not very stable
Pros and Cons
  • "The user interface, the UI, is excellent on the solution."
  • "The stability is not the best."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use the solution for the IPsec only. 

What is most valuable?

The user interface, the UI, is excellent on the solution. Let's say you want to check the real-time locker - you can create it by the UI using ADSM.

What needs improvement?

The VPN portion of the solution isn't the greatest.

The stability is not the best.

The solution is far too expensive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been working with the solution for about six months, or maybe a little bit less than that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I haven't found the stability to be very good. The IPsec stability leaves a lot to be desired. They really need to work on the solution's stability capabilities.

In ASA, I built the IPsec between ASA and Fortigate due to the fact that most of the time I have to restart the timer to flow the data.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We only have two to three users who directly deal with the solution within our company. Overall, we have between 100-200 employees. We haven't really scaled it.

I personally would prefer not to use ASA going forward. However, I don't know if the company itself has any plans to increase usage or not.

How are customer service and technical support?

While I've dealt with Cisco technical support in the past on other solutions, I have not contacted them in regards to this specific product.

That said, my past experience with Cisco technical support has been very positive and I found them to be very helpful in general. I just can't speak to this specific product.

How was the initial setup?

I was pretty junior when the solution was initially implemented in the organization. For that reason, I did not take an active role in implementing the solution. I wouldn't be able to really discuss the setup specifics or the level of difficulty.

I'm not exactly sure who handles maintenance, if any, within our organization.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing is quite expensive. I don't have the exact amount, however, it's my understanding that it's a very pricey solution. There's a lot of competition out there, including from Fortigate, which offers just as good, if not better products.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not overly familiar with ASA. I only work with it on an administration level.

I work with the latest version and I use the ASDM version server.

I wouldn't recommend that an organization choose ASA as a solution. They should look into other options.

Overall, I would rate the solution at a six out of ten. We haven't had the greatest experience.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Program director at a tech consulting company with 201-500 employees
Real User
Jan 14, 2021
A stable firewall solution with antivirus and bot protection
Pros and Cons
  • "I think Cisco ASA Firewall is the most stable firewall solution."
  • "The price can be better."

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco ASA Firewall to protect different sites at a protocol level. We also use it for antivirus and bot protection.

What is most valuable?

I think Cisco ASA Firewall is the most stable firewall solution.

What needs improvement?

The price can be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Cisco ASA Firewall for the last ten years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I think they're all are stable. I've never seen a firewall that's unstable.

How are customer service and technical support?

I'm satisfied with their technical support.

How was the initial setup?

It's easy for me to configure one because I have firewall configuration certifications. I don't know what someone with nothing in terms of experience would be able to do. 

It normally takes me a week to implement and deploy. I normally need a week and three people to do maintenance.

What about the implementation team?

I used to implement it several years ago, but now I ask our engineer to do it.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco ASA Firewall should be cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend Cisco ASA Firewall to potential users. 

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco ASA Firewall an eight.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1293345 - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a non-profit with 1-10 employees
Real User
Jan 8, 2021
User-friendly UI, blocking by category, has plenty of features
Pros and Cons
  • "You do not have to do everything through a command line which makes it a lot easier to apply rules."
  • "The solution could offer better control that would allow the ability to restrictions certain features from a website."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution to monitor the connections as part of our parameter protection for our network. We restrict what kind of traffic comes in and out, we use it basically for traffic management.

What is most valuable?

Cisco used to be all command-line operations and now Firepower is in a way modelled from FortiGate. Firepower has integrated a UI into it now.

You do not have to do everything through a command line which makes it a lot easier to apply rules.

You are able to see the traffic of what sites users are visiting.

There are warnings if you are about to go to sites that could be malicious.

It also allows you to block within categories, such as, by URL.

The solution always had these capabilities, but it did not have a user interface that was user-friendly.

What needs improvement?

The solution could offer better control that would allow the ability to restrictions certain features from a website. For example, If we want to allow YouTube but not allow uploads or we want to allow Facebook but not allow the chat or to playing of videos. This ability to customize restrictions would be great.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution for three months now. We have always used Cisco but before we were using the ASA and now we use the new version with the threat defence.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is good so far.  My opinion could change in another couple of months once we get more deeply involved with the solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We currently are protection approximately 220 users.

How are customer service and technical support?

We just deployed it a couple of months ago, we have not used the tech support with the Firepower yet. We have not had an issue that we have had to raise with them. 

Generally, the tech support for Cisco takes too long to go through the different tiers of support agents to get to someone that can resolve the issue. You end up speaking to someone that is not qualified to solve the issue, then you have to be escalated upwards over and over. This system could be better.

I rate the tech support service generally from Cisco a seven out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The installation is not hard and not easy either, it falls in between.

What about the implementation team?

The time of implementation took us two to three days. This was in part because we were migrating from another Cisco firewall. The config files were already there, we just had to bring them over. While having the config files we just had to set up the hardware to have us up and running. The install could have taken longer if this was not the case.

What other advice do I have?

Currently, I would give this solution high marks because I have not had a problem. However, keeping in mind, my evaluation period has been short. I would not give the solution a ten, nothing is perfect.

I rate Cisco Firepower NGFW Firewall a nine out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user1307058 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Consulting Engineer at a comms service provider with 201-500 employees
Real User
Jan 6, 2021
Easy to configure, good VPN capabilities, and the antimalware features provide extra security
Pros and Cons
  • "The most important feature is the VPN connection."
  • "I would like to see the inclusion of a protocol that can be used to protect databases."

What is our primary use case?

We are a solution provider and the Cisco ASA Firewall is one of the security products that we implement for our customers. My clients use it for security, and also to establish VPN connections.

How has it helped my organization?

My client is in the financial sector and all of the connections are doing using the VPN. This type of access makes the connections more secure.

What is most valuable?

The most important feature is the VPN connection.

My clients also use the antimalware features and the scan is very good. It also supports packet inspection and IPS.

Cisco ASA is easy to configure.

The integration with the security features is something that I like.

What needs improvement?

The SecureX ASA administration platform should be improved.

The orchestration of modules should be improved.

I would like to see the inclusion of a protocol that can be used to protect databases. This would be a good feature to have added.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been working with the Cisco ASA Firewall for approximately three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I have not had problems with stability, although I have had some small issues with bugs. In general, I can operate without a problem. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very easy to scale this product. With SMC, you can control all levels of ASA in a central console. You can simply add a new ASA firewall to protect your network, and you will be able to control it.

We have approximately 300 users.

My clients for this solution are medium-sized organizations.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not been in contact with technical support but I use the implementation guide. I have also used the community support and I think that it's okay. The information that I received about the configuration was good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Prior to Cisco ASA, my client was using Fortinet FortiGate. They switched because there were complaints about the connection being slow.

How was the initial setup?

The complexity of the setup depends on the needs and requirements of the client.

When a client does not know exactly what is needed, the complexity increases because the configuration is not clear. You really have to have a good understanding of what the client needs before configuring it.

If the model does not have SMC then it is complex to configure.

The length of time for deployment also depends on the requirements, but it will usually take between three days and one week.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

This is an expensive product, although when you buy this solution, you can do many things so it provides good value for the investment.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

My clients did evaluate other options but ultimately chose this product. Other than the VPN connection, I don't know the reasons for this decision.

What other advice do I have?

I can recommend this product because it is one of the most stable firewalls on the market. The suitability, however, depends on the environment and what is needed.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Secure Firewall Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: January 2026
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Secure Firewall Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.