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.
Presale Engineer at Telekom Deutschland GmbH
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?
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.
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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.
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
Network Architect at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
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.
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
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Network security consultant at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Enables us to control access to malicious websites and block URLs
Pros and Cons
- "You can manage and create policies based on a group of users. It can permit some URLs and block others."
- "Cisco Umbrella provides a cloud management system where we can manage every client from a single workspace in our portal, and the single pane of glass management is user-friendly."
- "The integration with other solutions is a little complex. If you want to integrate with something like ArcSight or LogRhythm or Splunk, you need to do a lot of configuration. There are no easy ways to implement it."
- "The integration with other solutions is a little complex. If you want to integrate with something like ArcSight or LogRhythm or Splunk, you need to do a lot of configuration."
What is our primary use case?
It's usually used for DNS security, to block malicious websites and URLs, and for URL filtration.
How has it helped my organization?
It enables us to control access to malicious websites and block them from the start. And the URL filtration enables us to permit some URLs and block others.
What is most valuable?
You can manage and create policies based on a group of users. It can permit some URLs and block others. For example, we can block Facebook and YouTube.
From the DNS perspective, you can control and block malicious URLs. DNS security is the best way to use it to protect against malicious websites.
Cisco Umbrella provides a cloud management system. We can manage every client from a single workspace because they're in our portal. The single pane of glass management is user-friendly.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see improvement in the user and group policies. Sometimes it is not very accurate and they apply only to specific users in a group. It needs to be more accurate.
Also, the reporting needs some enhancements.
Finally, the integration with other solutions is a little complex. If you want to integrate with something like ArcSight or LogRhythm or Splunk, you need to do a lot of configuration. There are no easy ways to implement it.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Umbrella since 2016. As a solution partner, I implement Cisco Umbrella for customers. I have designed the implementation multiple times for different customers.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have never heard of an outage in the service. The stability is good. The performance and accessibility are very good. The service is always operational because it runs on multiple servers and multiple load balancers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's scalable. Scaling depends on the licensing you have and the number of users. If you want to add a user or an endpoint, they can provide it.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco's support is very good. They provide solutions and they don't take much time to resolve issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When our clients switch to Umbrella, it's either because I suggest it to them or they know about the product and they ask to have it brought into their organizations.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation is easy.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Senior Network Engineer at Saffron networks pvt ltd
Complete solution in a single licensing
Pros and Cons
- "There is much differentiation within the licensing so if anyone wants DNS security from the DNS security log, we are there already, and if anyone wants to go to a secure internet gateway, that is also available. We can get the integrated cloud DLP license keys. That is a good benefit with Cisco Umbrella. You can get a complete solution in a single licensing."
- "There is much differentiation within the licensing so if anyone wants DNS security from the DNS security log, we are there already, and if anyone wants to go to a secure internet gateway, that is also available."
- "It should have more integrations with multiple end user OEMs."
- "In terms of what can be improved, it should have more integrations with multiple end user OEMs."
What is most valuable?
The first thing that I found most valuable is that there is much differentiation within the licensing so if anyone wants DNS security from the DNS security log, we are there already, and if anyone wants to go to a secure internet gateway, that is also available. We can get the integrated cloud DLP license keys. That is a good benefit with Cisco Umbrella. You can get a complete solution in a single licensing.
Additionally, the cloud firewall is available to integrate if you want. Also, you can create side to side within everything in the cloud.
Right now there are modules just like cloud DLP that are implemented very well. You can just log onto the site, upload and download with the multiple options that are available. That is a good option with Umbrella. Also, you can integrate it with a Cisco Meraki switch as a firewall. That is also a good benefit with Cisco Umbrella.
What needs improvement?
In terms of what can be improved, it should have more integrations with multiple end user OEMs.
Also, the Linux agent is a big challenge because multiple companies are going with Linux. There is no Linux right now for people working from home and they are looking for security which is not available via Linux. That needs to improve.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Umbrella for the last two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In terms of the stability, if you're talking about DNS Security, it is very stable. They recently launched Cloud DLP, so I can't comment on that. We are now working with it, but I do not have too much experience. DNS security is a stable product. There is no issue with that.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Umbrella is a scalable product. That means, when you have 4,000 users you can take the license for 4,000 users. If they just have 1,500 or 2,000, you can go for that license. Also, on the lower level, if you want 10 licenses, that is also available. That's scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
Cisco's technical support is always number one compared to other OEMs.
How was the initial setup?
Deployment and implementation are straightforward for anyone going for the basic certificate for networking, meaning CCNS or CCNP security. The implementation resources are readily available for it. We don't think Cisco has a difficult deployment. Umbrella is very easy. Everything is straightforward. There is no need to Google much for every feature because there is a tab where you can go and configure them. One thing I would like to improve in Umbrella is to have a Linux client available.
What other advice do I have?
On a scale of one to then, I would rate Cisco Umbrella just an eight.
I would recommend it. If you have a Cisco environment, then I must recommend Cisco Umbrella if you have a Cisco Meraki or a Cisco Router solution. There is the option available to integrate and use the firewall, as well. You can deploy policies from the cloud.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
Team Lead at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Excellent support, but this should be available on a regional basis
Pros and Cons
- "I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services."
- "I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services."
- "The integration with Cisco could be better."
- "While the way the solution works with the functions is fantastic, updates or the ability to secure the vault while offline for cloud-based services should be addressed."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the most updated version, although I cannot definitively give the number. I believe it is 1.6.
What is most valuable?
I like the original functionality, which allows for providing secure DNS services. To define that, one's users can be on-net or off-net. This can be either in one's office or a remote location. This is the functionality that I find to be most prevalent in the area.
What needs improvement?
While the way the solution works with the functions is fantastic, updates or the ability to secure the vault while offline for cloud-based services should be addressed.
The integration with Cisco could be better. We already have something along these lines and so far so good.
Local support should also be provided, so that there will not be a need to lump us in with the European pool. For other products, Cisco does have local support. There is a local number which can be reached should the need arise. The support should be more regionalized, as we are talking about an endpoint to endpoint solution. Owing to the number of people who interface with the tool and the response time, local support should be provided. The local support job should handle the app of Cisco Meraki.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Umbrella for over a year.
How are customer service and technical support?
Cisco Talks is just about the best technical assistance center in the world. I have no complaints or issues with it.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In the past I worked with Checkpoint Harmony, which is a similar tool that provides a certain level of endpoint support to users and a measure of coverage.
I like the responsiveness of the technical assistance center of Cisco Talks. As such, I will always go with Cisco. It was thanks to the technical assistance center that I went with Checkpoint Harmony on one occasion.
How was the initial setup?
For organizations in which I have been involved, I start off easy and then proceed to compliant, since there is a need to ensure that one does not overly complicate his work. The deployment for each person is generally very difficult. We start with easy, at which point we are encouraged to have a good grasp of the technology, without which the entire environment will be locked down and nobody will be able to do anything. As such, I start with easy and migrate the customers to compliant over time.
What about the implementation team?
Each environment has two people who are responsible for deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In the region I'm from, that of EMAR, Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia and Africa, our organizations do not have many liquid cash assets, so the price could be better.
What other advice do I have?
We use the solution both internally and externally, as the company for which I work, Signal Alliance, is a systems integrator.
One should keep an open mind when it comes to using the solution, start off easy and then proceed to compliant.
I rate Cisco Umbrella as a seven out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. partner
Spider Solutions CTO at a security firm with 11-50 employees
Affordable, easy to use, with good visibility
Pros and Cons
- "It offers good visibility for the Administrator. The administrator has full visibility of what is blocked or has the knowledge of where users go when they are surfing the internet."
- "The most valuable feature is the ease of use."
- "I would like to see more integrability with other products."
- "I would like to see more integrability with other products."
What is our primary use case?
We use Cisco Umbrella for protecting the web surfing channel.
When users are accessing the internet, mainly for web surfing, Umbrella will protect the access to the internet.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ease of use.
It's very Robust.
It offers good visibility for the Administrator. The administrator has full visibility of what is blocked or has the knowledge of where users go when they are surfing the internet.
What needs improvement?
I would like to see more integrability with other products.
If I could take this information and integrate it with other products, it would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Cisco Umbrella for two years.
We are using the latest version.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have no issues with the stability of the Cisco Umbrella.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Umbrella is a scalable product.
We have 100 users in our organization who are using this solution.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is fine.
How was the initial setup?
For us, the installation was very easy.
We had the option of using the on-premises device, which would give you better visibility, but we didn't use it. This choice made the installation very easy.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The licensing fee is paid on a yearly basis.
The price is okay. I don't have any issues with the price of the Cisco Umbrella.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others.
I would rate Cisco Umbrella an eight out of ten.
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.
Solutions Architect at Quartet Service Inc.
Effective site blocking, mature, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the ability to block users from reaching places that they should not even try to reach has been a boon."
- "Umbrella has been a godsend for that."
- "One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella. Sometimes when you want to use technology, such as Always On VPN, it will not work. There are some looming issues as one type of technology starts to crossover with Umbrella. That is the challenge and Umbrella should find a way to be more compatible with some of the endpoint response solutions that are coming out on the market."
- "One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution for DNS filtering to try and make sure that users do not make ill-advised clicks and find themselves in harm's way. Once we started to implement it, we realized that just putting Cisco Umbrella appliances on the company's network was not good enough. The notebooks travel and the risk factor travels. We switched over and for some time now, we have deployed it predominantly on roaming clients.
How has it helped my organization?
In the current environment, it is a good thing we had deployed the Cisco Umbrella before people started to work from home because of COVID. The risk factors went up and the amount of thoughtfulness that people put into, "Is this a real message or is this phishing?" People became lax. If we did not have this solution, the number of clients that we would be dealing with attack issues would have mushroomed to a much higher level than we had to deal with. Umbrella has been a godsend for that.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the ability to block users from reaching places that they should not even try to reach has been a boon.
Once we were given a roaming client and we did not only have Umbrella servers filtering the traffic as it left the perimeter. They were giving us what we want and did not have to worry anymore, I was happy with the solution. I view it as a mature solution that delivers what we need.
What needs improvement?
One of the issues with Umbrella is as you get into endpoint detection and response, such as EDR point solutions, some of them will not integrate well with Umbrella. Sometimes when you want to use technology, such as Always On VPN, it will not work. There are some looming issues as one type of technology starts to crossover with Umbrella. That is the challenge and Umbrella should find a way to be more compatible with some of the endpoint response solutions that are coming out on the market.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for a long time since it was OpenDNA which was before Cisco bought it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There are no scalability problems with this solution. They do a good job of having updated servers around the world and at all hours of day.
How are customer service and technical support?
One of the issues with Cisco technical support is that it is all linked to them having all of the maintenance contracts always running. If you work with a customer base where not everybody always renews their subscriptions and you need to get support but you did not sell the solution, it can make reaching the support a challenge. There is no problem with the quality of the support. However, sometimes Cisco's arcane rules regarding how they register and do tracking make it difficult for a managed service provider to get the support they need.
We do not have a problem with getting support for Umbrella because we have a contract for that. It is trying to get support for all the various pieces of networking hardware that customers have not maintained properly difficult, Cisco is not easy to deal with in this regard.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
When talking about Cisco solutions in general there pricing model is horrible. For example, you can sell a Meraki-based solution, but if the customer starts shopping around, someone is going to have access to the pricing at a level that you cannot compete because they do not have uniform pricing. Not everybody gets fair pricing. Unless you are one of the real major corporations selling the solution your ability to compete is impossible. Cisco will acknowledge the situation and assure you next time it will be in your favor but it never becomes favorable for you. Cisco is not very good in this regard. However, Umbrella is good.
What other advice do I have?
If you are not using some form of DNS filtering to guard against threats, you are not doing a good job on security in the current climate anymore.
I rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Consultor en Seguridad de la Información at ISS
Fast and easy to setup with a nice DNS-Layer of security
Pros and Cons
- "Cisco Umbrella is such a solution and can be implemented very fast and easy. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that are going to use in Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service."
- "If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service."
- "There are cheaper solutions in the market"
- "There are cheaper solutions in the market."
What is our primary use case?
The Cisco Umbrella solution offers protection to everyone that will be connected to the internet because Umbrella provides a DNS-layer of security. When someone connects to the internet or they set up the DNS service, that person will use the Umbrella service and the extra layer of Umbrella. All their traits are to be located before they get to the device that the person is using to connect to the internet.
What is most valuable?
Cisco Umbrella can be implemented very fast and easily. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that is going to use Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service.
How was the initial setup?
Cisco Umbrella is such a solution and can be implemented very fast and easily. All that we must do is redirect the DNS registers in their routers, or the active directory service of the enterprise that is going to use in Umbrella services. If you buy the service now, in two hours you are protected by the service because it's very fast to put in service.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There are cheaper solutions in the market, but when we say that we work with Cisco, usually we must handle the security architecture of Cisco more than a single product, so we can be successful in selling the security solutions.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Cisco Umbrella at an eight on a scale of ten. I rate it at an eight because there must be something to improve in Umbrella.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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