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Anish Joseph - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Great end-to-end detection and saves our IT team's time
Pros and Cons
  • "I also think that the dashboard view is really helpful. Whenever sites get blocked, we get the details and the users who are connecting to them."
  • "There is room for improvement in the dashboard. It could stand to be a bit more detailed. I would also like to be able to customize the dashboard to focus more on what is important for my company."

What is our primary use case?

Our primary use case for Cisco Umbrella is DNS filtering. We also have virtual appliances installed at almost all of our sites. 

We refer our end users to the local VAs and also to the public Umbrella DNS. We mostly use it for the guest network. For internal users, we have dedicated virtual appliances installed at every site. We have a number of offices globally and each major site will have one VA.

How has it helped my organization?

Thanks to Cisco Umbrella, we are better able to respond to malicious attacks and block those domains right away. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features in my opinion are DNS filtering, filtering details, and the ability to block certain web pages. However, we mostly use DNS filtering. I also think that the dashboard view is really helpful. Whenever sites get blocked, we get the details and the users who are connecting to them.

What needs improvement?

There is room for improvement in the dashboard. It could stand to be a bit more detailed. I would also like to be able to customize the dashboard to focus more on what is important for my company. This would be particularly important for the customized dashboard we create for the leadership team. This would help us get information to them quickly.

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Umbrella
August 2025
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For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Umbrella for the last three to four years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Umbrella is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We use Cisco Umbrella across multiple offices so it is scalable. For the smallest offices, we use data center VAs and even in that configuration, it is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

Cisco's tech support is OK. I have had only good experiences with them. 

They could work on getting on the calls more quickly because it can be difficult to reach them sometimes. This is particularly true during P1 outages. 

On the other hand, they do really well with giving us helpful suggestions and additional information when we need it. The documentation is particularly good. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We did not previously use a different solution. We were blocking things through the Cisco firewall. 

Migrating from our previous firewall configuration to Cisco Umbrella was not so difficult. We did not additionally configure the normal firewall policies. All we did with this solution was add an additional layer of security.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not simple. It is quite difficult and cannot be implemented by everyone. You need to have some basic understanding of the product to deploy it. You need to understand DNS filtering and domain blocking and have a working knowledge of DNS and how it works. You should also have experience with virtual machines and VM detecting because Cisco Umbrella is on a VM. 

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment from Cisco Umbrella. We have seen many benefits. 

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

We are Cisco partners so we get a discount on the licensing. With the discount, I would say the pricing is OK. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options. Ultimately, we landed on Cisco because it is more user-friendly than its competitors. 

What other advice do I have?

End-to-end detection is mostly used for end users. We make use of it and it works well for us. It helps us find malicious attacks and identify other breaches. Cisco Umbrella is helpful when it comes to remediation as well. Whenever there is a new attack, we receive a notification and we block the domains through the solution. 

Cisco Umbrella frees up time for our IT staff, particularly the network operations team. They use this product to find attacks and users who access non-allowed pages. However, I cannot say exactly how much time is saved because it all depends on the day. We have offices across the globe and each is impacted individually by the solution.

Cisco Umbrella has not caused our organization to consolidate tools.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Dan Brunnquell - PeerSpot reviewer
Director Of Information Technology at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Real User
Works exactly how it's supposed to and gives confidence that when our laptops leave the building, they are protected as if they were behind our firewall
Pros and Cons
  • "When we have laptops that leave the building, they could connect to public WiFi before they establish a VPN connection back into the company. For that duration or that period of time when they're not docked in the network or on a VPN, they effectively don't have that full layer of security that I provide inside the building. This tool stands in during that period of time, and we extend the security settings through their basic firewall or their cloud-based firewall at that time. So, we do content filtering and control access, but they also are looking at new domains, IP addresses, and bad requests. They're blocking them on my behalf when a laptop is not sitting behind our security appliances."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco Umbrella to secure our gateway. All of the DNS forwarding coming out of the company from any site or all the DNS requests are forwarded through Cisco Umbrella, and then they determine if that is a safe address and if the content coming back is safe. They will either reject the addressing out of hand, or they'll look at the Layer 7 content and reject that from making it back to us.

We are using the Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Advantage package. In terms of deployment, effectively, it's deployed from our private cloud. It's in our data closet on our servers.

How has it helped my organization?

It enables us to finally allow laptops to be used as workstations and allow data to leave the building. In the past, laptops were only used for VPN access, but they would connect back to their data inside the company. This has allowed us to have a level of confidence that they're protected as if they were behind our firewall. So, now, we've got work-from-home people who literally have their workstations with them.

We have six sites with 60 to 70 users. The baseline configuration allows for additional protection for any DNS requests as they leave those sites, and then the secondary policy is for the mobile devices as they leave the premises. When they're connected to public WiFi, they have an additional policy that kicks in for that time that they're not connected back to the company. So, when they're on public WiFi without a VPN, the tool will actually put that second policy in place that's more aggressive and offers a higher level of protection when it's not sitting behind the firewall. All that is automated. It's all built into the agent.

We don't allow WiFi inside of our network for connection to our actual business network. As soon as a device is docked, it disables WiFi on that mobile device.

What is most valuable?

When we have laptops that leave the building, they could connect to public WiFi before they establish a VPN connection back into the company. For that duration or that period of time when they're not docked in the network or on a VPN, they effectively don't have that full layer of security that I provide inside the building. This tool stands in during that period of time, and we extend the security settings through their basic firewall or their cloud-based firewall at that time. So, we do content filtering and control access, but they also are looking at new domains, IP addresses, and bad requests. They're blocking them on my behalf when a laptop is not sitting behind our security appliances.

What needs improvement?

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. I can't geofence out. I can plot top-level domains, but .com and .net go global. I can certainly block a China (CN) or a Russia (RU) domain, but that doesn't give me the same level of granularity. 

Apparently, Cisco Umbrella has got that as a feature request to allow an administrator to say, "I specifically only want traffic to and from these countries. Everything else should be dumped." That way, when they're sitting behind my network or they go out in the wild, they have that same level of traffic being blocked.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for 14 to 15 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We've had no issues. It has done exactly what it's supposed to do.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is cloud-based. So, scalability should not be an issue. 

Any increase in its usage is all relative to the growth of our staff. Currently, we deploy the laptops for people who need to work from home or are traveling between the banks. That's roughly about 20% of our total staff. Some people aren't going to be working from home, and some of their jobs can't be done from home. They have no need for mobile devices. If there is a need to work from home, its usage will increase. It is there if we need it to scale, but at this point, it is not scheduled to change.

How are customer service and support?

Once I became a paying customer, it was much better. The preliminary training is there, but when you get into the nuances and the details of some of its capabilities, you need to talk to tech support. Once you're a paid customer, you get direct access, and then it's good. When I'm able to get a hold of them, their technical support is a 10 out of 10.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I didn't use any similar solution previously. 

How was the initial setup?

I was a hundred percent involved in its deployment. We had a couple of issues. The proof of concept was done without a lot of planning. So, there were some mistakes made along the way. If I was doing it again the second time, I wouldn't make the same mistakes. 

The default configurations have your baselines. Those are never supposed to get changed, and I changed and tweaked those for our proof of concept. After a couple of weeks, I had some additional guidance from the Cisco Umbrella team. You leave the baseline configuration, and then you clone and create a new configuration that sits in front of it. So, everyone gets the baseline, and you don't change that. If you want to change it, you make a new policy and then make the changes to that. If you change the baseline default policy and you make a mistake in it, you've to back that all out. If you make it in the new policy, in the worst case, you just delete it, and automatically everyone goes back to baseline. So, there's still a policy in effect. That was a training issue that should have been resolved. Now that I've done it, if somebody asks me, I would say that this is the way you've got to do it.

What about the implementation team?

It was just me taking care of its deployment. In terms of maintenance, once it's configured, unless you're retweaking and adding or removing something that was blocked, it pretty much runs itself.

What was our ROI?

I have less maintenance to resolve, fix, and reconfigure VPN clients personally, and the feedback from the end-users is that they're more productive.

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

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 has always been an issue for years and years with Cisco Meraki in terms of VPN clients and using the native built-in Windows client. It keeps reconfiguring itself. By using Cisco AnyConnect as the VPN client, it's not affected by Windows patching or people typing in passwords by mistake. It's more resilient and doesn't change. With just Meraki solution, there was an extra expense for the Cisco AnyConnect VPN client. By having Cisco Umbrella, that licensing is now included.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

There were a couple of other options, and I discussed them with another consultant. As a regulated industry, we have to do vendor management, and vendors have to be vetted. So, Cisco was already a vetted vendor. There are other companies that do the same thing, but Cisco didn't require me to do any more vetting. They were already a vendor.

What other advice do I have?

When it's configured the way it's supposed to work, it turns itself on and off based on the status of the VPN or the dock condition. Once it's configured, it does exactly what it's supposed to do. 

If you're doing a proof of concept on it, fully understand how the policies are configured and what the flow is. You should understand the hierarchical status of the policies to configure it right the first time. You don't really want to guess it.

I would rate it a 10 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Private Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Umbrella
August 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Umbrella. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2025.
865,384 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Vishwajeet Pandey - PeerSpot reviewer
senior technical administrator at Ogma Consulting
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
A very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco is a very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page. We can monitor the entire network."
  • "The solution could be faster as the process is very slow."

What is our primary use case?

Cisco is a very efficient and on-point solution that controls the whole network and settings on one page. We can monitor the entire network.

What needs improvement?

The solution could be faster as the process is very slow.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Umbrella as a reseller for four to five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the solution’s stability an eight and a half out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have deployed it to small businesses.

I rate the solution’s scalability an eight out of ten.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward and takes few hours to complete.

I rate the initial setup a nine out of ten, where one is difficult, and ten is easy.

What was our ROI?

ROI is pretty good. I rate it as eight out of ten.

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

You need to buy an additional license for customer services. The licensing is moderate.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend the solution.

Overall, I rate the solution as eight and a half out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
PeerSpot user
Laurent Dauphin - PeerSpot reviewer
Account Manager at Axians
Reseller
Top 10
A DNS security solution that is useful for web filtering
Pros and Cons
  • "The customer experience is very good, and the product improves security posture."
  • "Cisco Umbrella is difficult to manage and needs to include a dashboard. It needs to improve pricing as well."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for DNS security and web filtering. Our industries include banking and insurance. 

What is most valuable?

The customer experience is very good, and the product improves security posture. 

What needs improvement?

Cisco Umbrella is difficult to manage and needs to include a dashboard. It needs to improve pricing as well. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate Cisco Umbrella's stability a nine out of ten. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool's scalability an eight out of ten. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is easy; I rate it a nine out of ten. The speed of deployment depends on various factors, including our communication with other customer contacts.

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

I rate the tool's pricing a five out of ten. 

What other advice do I have?

Cisco Umbrella is the best solution for DNS security in the market. Our customers are enterprise businesses. I rate it an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Consultant Engineer at a tech company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Has DNS integration with data directories and enables our customers to be secure
Pros and Cons
  • "Umbrella enables customers to be secure. We are happy with this and this is the most important benefit for customers."
  • "The pricing changes too fast. We get the license and we need to relicense it because they already made changes to it. We always need to be on top of the licenses because they're always changing."

What is our primary use case?

Our customers use Umbrella for a security network. They want to have DNS connectivity and drop traffic before it becomes dodgy. 

Clients implement Umbrella with the full proxy. 

How has it helped my organization?

Umbrella enables customers to be secure. We are happy with this and this is the most important benefit for customers.

What is most valuable?

DNS is the most valuable feature of Umbrella. We want to have DNS integration with data directories and we have customers asking about the Azure Integration. 

We try to fit all the Cisco Secure products together. This is the value the customers can see as well. We enable the Firewalls, Umbrella, and AMP so that the customer can see the whole view of what Cisco is doing. 

What needs improvement?

Our customers want to be able to work remotely. They want Umbrella to work securely from the office and to work securely outside of the office. 

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Umbrella for years now. We have an Umbrella internally as well. I sell Umbrella to customers. We offer the full setup to them.

We are resellers and integrators.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is getting better.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is fine. The central management, that comes with most solutions, is really good. It's easier for us to go from two devices to 20 devices.

How are customer service and support?

We have had quite a good experience with their support so I can't complain about it. Most of the time TAC cases are quite straightforward and do not take a long time to fix.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

Our clients deploy on public cloud, private cloud, hybrid cloud, on-premise, or SaaS.

I am an engineer and do the initial deployment for them and make tweaks until it works for them. 

The complexity of the deployment will depend on the client's requirements. Some of them have straightforward requirements and some of them are quite detailed. The implementation itself is fine but there can be details where we need to check the documentation and make sure we're following what they require. 

Customers use the Firewall Migration for the migration mostly from the ASAs. We do the ASA to FTD migration, which doesn't work well.

Two or three engineers are required for the deployment. The installation is done by different engineers.  

We also do the maintenance. So whatever we deployed, we also support. We do all the support requirements, updating and reviewing the deployment that we did. We do the config that is required. For example, for the migration, if we deploy something, we come back to review what we did because we want to make sure that the customer is more secure than it was before. So we just rerun the same configuration, trying to find out if there's a gap that we can fix and make sure that the customer is secure.

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

The pricing changes too fast. We get the license and we need to relicense it because they already made changes to it. We always need to be on top of the licenses because they're always changing.

What other advice do I have?

Cisco Talos seems to be working fine for our customers. 

My advice to somebody considering this solution is to try it. It's probably the best option to try it and see if it works. Do a proof of concept and proof of value for the customer.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
PeerSpot user
reviewer2107437 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Provides good protection and quick support and is very stable
Pros and Cons
  • "It has certainly saved us time. If we go and look at what's rejected on the requests from the hospital itself, it has saved about 5% or 6% time."
  • "Its price could be better."

What is our primary use case?

Most of the time, it's for security reasons in terms of looking at what DNS requests are being done and other things like that.

How has it helped my organization?

It has certainly saved us time. If we go and look at what's rejected on the requests from the hospital itself, it has saved about 5% or 6% time.

It's there to keep everything secure. Hospitals are a very nice target for attacks. We have been under an attack from Russia once, which was a DDoS attack.

It secures our infrastructure from end to end so we can detect and remediate threats.

What is most valuable?

The protection from users doing stupid things is valuable. The dashboard gives me the information I need.

What needs improvement?

Its price could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using it for about two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. I've never seen any problems with it.

How are customer service and support?

It's perfect for the things we have with it. There is a quick resolution. There are no problems at all. I'd rate them a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

I've not used a similar solution. We went for Cisco Umbrella because they are delivering good products. We also have all Cisco switches in place, and then we have Cisco ACI and DNA Center. We only don't have Cisco firewalls.

I am not aware of any tools that we could consolidate or get rid of by using Cisco Umbrella because it was installed about five or six years before I came here.

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

Cisco is expensive. For example, we are looking at Nexus Dashboard, and it's costing about 250,000 euros. I ask, "What do I get from it?" I'm still not convinced that we have to spend on it, so pricing is a problem.

What other advice do I have?

It's a very good product. I'd rate it an eight out of ten. Overall, I am satisfied with the product.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Presale Engineer at Telekom Deutschland GmbH
Reseller
Has good technical support and is scalable and easy to deploy
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco's technical support is pretty good. When a solution is available, they will find it. On a scale from one to ten with ten being the best, I'd rate Cisco's technical support at nine."
  • "The locks and management could be better. The product is fairly new, and it may take some time to get all the features up and running."

What is our primary use case?

Our clients use Cisco Umbrella compared with SD-WAN or Meraki solutions. They use layer 7 firewall and web proxy in most use cases and fewer DNS security functionalities.

How has it helped my organization?

Cisco Umbrella has replaced on-premises firewalls in our client's branches. Our client had one central cloud solution, and now, they no longer need the local firewall.

What is most valuable?

Our clients have found that Cisco Umbrella increases its security posture because there is a central policy that fits everything.

Though Cisco Talos is usually part of the backend, it is mandatory to have a good solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been implementing Cisco Umbrella for three years.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I have not seen any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco's technical support is pretty good. When a solution is available, they will find it. On a scale from one to ten with ten being the best, I'd rate Cisco's technical support at nine.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

We sell both Cisco and Zscaler. If the client already has a Cisco solution, then Umbrella is usually a better fit. In cases when a customer already uses Zscaler, has another SD-WAN solution, or has a different vendor, Zscaler may be the first choice.

As a Cisco Secure reseller, we bring value to our customers through our technicians and engineers who consult with them and implement the solution. This is a benefit from our partner side.

How was the initial setup?

The initial deployment is quite easy. It's internal, and with a few clicks, Cisco Umbrella can be up and running.

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

Cisco should make the solution cheaper.

What other advice do I have?

The locks and management could be better. The product is fairly new, and it may take some time to get all the features up and running.

Overall, I would rate Cisco Umbrella an eight on a scale from one to ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
PeerSpot user
Network Architect at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Easy to use and the categories are very clear
Pros and Cons
  • "We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far."
  • "I would like to see Cisco enable us to get objects from the internet. I would also like to be able to choose groups."

What is most valuable?

What I find most valuable about Cisco Umbrella is its ease of use. I also value the clearness of the categories. We have not experienced any issues or incidents with the categories. However, we are looking more deeply at the product now. 

What needs improvement?

We are very new users of the solution and are still in the exploration stages, but we are happy with the product thus far. However, there are some features available in Fortinet and Palo Alto that are not available in Cisco, like objects, for example. I would like to see Cisco enable us to get objects from the internet. I would also like to be able to choose groups. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Umbrella for two to three months now. 

How are customer service and support?

For most of our technical support needs, we mostly go through our partner. However, for some infrastructure-related inquiries, we have had to contact Cisco's technical support and we were happy with the experience.  

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple. Deployment at our main sites took about three to four weeks. 

What about the implementation team?

We received help from a local partner, NTT Global, during the deployment. They helped us set up Meraki and Umbrella. 

What was our ROI?

We hope to see a return on investment with Cisco Umbrella. We have a big team managing the infrastructure, so we hope to save time in the day-to-day protection of the tower, which would be the return on investment.

Globally, we also hope to save time on the LAN. We aim for a single pane of glass management model with the dashboard. 

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

From what I remember about the pricing, Cisco Umbrella is a bit more expensive than the quotes we got from its competitors. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at several products, including Fortinet and Palo Alto. We experienced a bug with Fortinet during testing and ultimately ended up going with Cisco Meraki products. We have not had an incident yet with Cisco Umbrella.

What other advice do I have?

The solution helped us save time and this was a major reason we chose it. We expect to save 15% to 20% in time.

We are aiming to consolidate our entire network and LAN infrastructure with Cisco Umbrella. We are on the way to achieving that with this solution.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Umbrella Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: August 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Umbrella Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.