Cisco Web Security Appliance Reviews

Cisco Web Security Appliance is user-friendly and easy to manage. It protects your environment while accessing the internet. 

The tool needs to improve cloud-based decryption. 

Cisco Web Security Appliance's stability is good. 

The product is scalable. We have 1500 to 2000 users. 

The tool's deployment is very straightforward. The only process that can take time is aligning the policies as per your use case. 

Getting a partner from Cisco to help with the deployment is good. 

You can get a good ROI in the long run. 

The tool's licensing is yearly. 

I rate the product a ten out of ten. 

Cisco Web Security Appliance can be used as a proxy for sending all traffic to the internet. In that case, I can apply security policies and provide anti-malware, protection, and attack prevention with this security appliance. Additionally, there is some advanced functionality, such as security orchestration and security incident management appliance integration. You are able to have full protection and incident management.

This solution can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise.

I am using a virtual infrastructure which is the easiest infrastructure.

The most valuable feature of Cisco Web Security Appliance is the provided anti-malware functionality and URL categorization. I can block access to malicious websites. 99 percent of the cases are related to a malicious website. If I cannot browse those malicious websites, then we are 99 percent protected. 

We have SSL decryption and we receive full visibility of what is happening on the network. With SSL decryption, most of the traffic is encrypted and if I had the traffic recorded, I could see what is happening inside that traffic.

The solution could improve the graphical user interface. It is not up to the regular standard of what we would expect from Cisco. Additionally, they need to improve the categorization when blocking in the settings. The CLI could have a better view than the graphical user interface but I did not investigate further.

I have been using Cisco Web Security Appliance for approximately seven years.

The solution is stable and has high availability.

I rate the stability of Cisco Web Security Appliance a nine out of ten.

The scalability of Cisco Web Security Appliance is high.

I rate the scalability of Cisco Web Security Appliance a ten out of ten.

Cisco is the best support team available on this planet. I am happy with the support I have received.

I have worked with Cisco Firepower and the Cisco DNA Center Platform. It is a stable solution, but they are working on improving it.

The initial setup is complex. The is not much flexibility when creating policies. As per the design guide, they have provided a lot of limitations for creating policies. For example, if I create 30 access policies, 30 customization decryption policies, and 30 custom complex policies, there is a complexity in the qualification. If the policy is complex then CP gets high, which is a problem. 

Following the best practice guide, I have to follow that constraint. However, customers, are not happy with the restriction and policies. They want to create as much policy as possible. 

The implementation took approximately two weeks or ten working days.

I do the implementation of this solution.

There is a subscription-based license needed to use this solution.

I rate Cisco Web Security Appliance a nine out of ten.

I am a reseller and work with clients to set up web and email security. Most of my clients focus on web security where they connect with proxy servers to view security items that relate to antivirus, threat defense, and anti-malware. 

The solution is used to enforce security when accessing the web and as a transparent proxy for smartphones and tablets. 

The solution provides good web reputation and anti-malware protection. 

URL filtering and parameter controls are not used in business or enterprise implementations but are good. 

The transparent proxy is quite difficult to enforce on smartphones and tablets because it is on a sticker implementation rather than a line mode. The WCCP ID is the biggest IP address of the appliance but it is not able to be reached by the user. 

The addition of inbound features such as a reverse proxy and load balancers would be very useful.

Reporting could be improved so that a central management solution is not required. 

I have been using the solution for more than ten years.

The virtual appliance is very easy to implement and is stable with no crashes. 

Power outages may affect the hardware appliance because its hard disk is encrypted. 

There are some issues with scalability when adding new devices that are related to clustering and load balance in the Active Directory. 

Technical support is quite good compared with other solutions. 

I rate support a ten out of ten. 

Positive

The initial setup for a basic implementation with direct access to the proxy is straightforward. 

I rate setup a ten out of ten. 

We implement the solution for our customers. 

For a security solution, there isn't an ROI but you can evaluate how much data or money you will lose if attacked.  

The licensing options begin with 100 users and this is a high threshold for smaller networks that might only have 25-75 users. 

It would be a benefit to offer one-year licenses in addition to the already available multi-year packages. 

The premium or bundle licenses require additional support from third-party vendors to ensure there are no disruptions in service for customers. 

It is important to be confident in the solution even though it is new because any challenges are minor. 

The solution is one of the best enterprise-based products in the market and is not expensive compared to others. 

The solution is not perfect because it has transparent proxy issues so I rate it a nine out of ten. 

Our company works solely on government projects. Hyperconverged infrastructure is one portion of our use case for Web Security Appliance because it's a bundled solution that includes cyber security, network, the passive component, storage, and HCI. We are based in India and we have over 10,000 employees. We are a Cisco gold partner and I am deputy general manager of presales.

This solution helps our customers with the challenges their clients face attempting to connect to their network or app. It's very good for large enterprise organizations. 

There are occasional delays in customer support but it's a minor thing. 

I've been using this solution for three years. 

The solution is stable. 

The solution is scalable which is important in our situation because we have a five-year plan to increase users. 

The support is great, almost perfect. We directly communicate with the Cisco India team.

Positive

The initial setup is easy and our customers are satisfied with the deployment and the support we provide in that respect. We work with two or three engineers per site and deployment usually takes somewhere between 10 to 15 days.

Licensing is calculated by the number of users and paid on an annual basis. The license includes technical support. The solution is not expensive. 

Cisco Web Security Appliance is used to secure users from malicious threats across the internet and applications they access on different cloud platforms. It is a dedicated solution for protecting users from various internet threats and provides a centralized dashboard for visibility and control over accessed apps.

The solution offers content filtering and micro-content controls, such as regulating the types of images and their resolution. It provides granular controls over media being accessed on social platforms, ensuring that content not in the company's interest is restricted.

The product is great, however, incorporating features offered by competitors would be beneficial. Competitors sometimes highlight features that Cisco products lack. Additional features like improved whitelisting and blacklisting of malicious websites could enhance the product.

I have been using Cisco Web Security Appliance for several years, more than seven or eight, approximately eight or nine years.

The solution is subscription-based, making scaling possible.

Cisco offers intense and comprehensive technical support services, making it a strong selling point.

Positive

The installation requires a skilled resource who understands the product technology and its features. Deployment is not straightforward due to the complexity of the functions and considerations involved.

Cisco provides Mentored Installation Services through specialized service delivery partners to ensure proper deployment.

Pricing is competitive and varies across sectors. Public sector clients receive good pricing, whereas enterprise or commercial clients might not find the pricing as favorable.

I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.

The tool has good Umbrella DNS security. 

The tool needs to provide logs. They need to improve firewall threat defense. 

I have been working with Cisco products for more than two decades. 

I would rate the tool's scalability a seven out of ten. 

I would rate the product a seven out of ten. 

We use Cisco Web Security Appliance for many things like firewalls, site-to-site VPN, routing, etc. We can use it for remote work. 

Cisco Web Security Appliance can integrate with Active Directory, enabling us to manage all the end-users within AD.  It's helpful for setting rules based on individual users and groups. For example, you can configure policies for inbound and outbound traffic. 

Cisco Web Appliance is highly stable if configured correctly. 

I rate Cisco Web Appliance eight out of 10 for scalability. 

I rate Cisco support nine out of 10. 

Positive

Setting up Cisco Web Security Appliance is highly complex and it takes about a week. We have to connect it to the Active Directory and configure all the policies for end users. It takes a long time to configure rules for our company data like port forwarding and separating the public and local components. 

I rate Cisco Web Security Appliance 10 out of 10. It's a complete security solution.

We primarily use the solution to verify the identity of users that are connecting to the network. It's used to check the compliance of their systems before they are able to connect.

There isn't that much to it. It's not overly complex.

The scalability is good.

The deployment process is very simple.

Technical support is okay.

The stability could be better. 

The solution needs to be more user-friendly and easier to navigate. It's not so easy right now. 

I've been using the solution for five years at this point. I've used it for a while. 

The stability is lacking and is something that should be looked at. We don't find it to be very stable.

The solution offers good scalability. If a company need sot expand it, it can do so. It's not a problem.

We have about 50,000 users on the solution currently.

We've contacted technical support in the past and they have been fine. Cisco has relatively good technical support.

We did not previously use a different solution.

The solution is very easy to implement. It's not overly complex or too difficult. Our deployment took about six months.

We have five team members that can handle setups and maintenance tasks. They are engineers.

While we did do some of the initial setup ourselves, we did also have a consultant come in to assist in certain areas from time to time. 

There is a one-time licensing fee that needs to be paid. 

We are using the latest version of the solution, however, I cannot speak to the exact version number.

I would rate the solution at a seven out of ten. It's an okay solution that needs better stability.

I would recommend the solution to other companies and organizations.