Cisco Web Security Appliance Reviews

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. 

We are just using the solution for internal purposes. When we need to browse the internet, our staff will either be allowed or refused access to the internet. All of the internet is accessed via the server.

The bandwidth limit is useful. The categories are pre-defined by Cisco. 

It's a very user-friendly product and is easy to set up.

The product is stable.

It's a scalable product.

It should have a user-based quota, per-user quota, that can be defined on the appliance. That way, if a user reaches their quota individually, they should be blocked for the next day. 

One major feature that is still not in this product and that should be implemented by Cisco is that it should have a live graph. We'd like to see, for example: What is the user consumption at the right now? What is the bandwidth, when bandwidth is used by the user? There is no current graph of it and I would recommend it should be in the product.

I've been using the solution for five years. 

The product is stable. I have not seen any issues in five years. We have not had any unintentional reboots or downtime. It is very reliable and is a stable product.

We haven't had any issues with scalability.

In my first company, there were 2,000 people on the solution. In my latest organization, we have 15,000 people on it. 

We've reached out to support for day-to-day challenges. They've been very helpful and responsive and we have been happy with their level of service. 

Positive

The solution is very easy to set up. It's user-friendly. The process isn't difficult. It took us about a day to set up.

You do need to pay for a license. It's not cheap or expensive. It's mid-level in terms of price. 

We did look at other solutions. We conducted a comparison of options and did a POC. In the end, we found this product very helpful. We looked at, for example, Fortigate, among others. 

We're a customer and end-user.

I'd advise users to give the solution a try. It's a very easy-to-use product and everything is working without any issue with the appliance. I would recommend others to use it.

I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.

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 are using the Cisco Web Security Appliance as part of the security in our data center. Our data center includes equipment and software from a variety of vendors including Cisco, Dell EMC, Microsoft, and Veritas.

This appliance gives me good visibility in the userbase and their activities. I can see what they are using, which websites they are browsing, a history for each user, and how much bandwidth they have utilized.

It integrates well into the Cisco environment.

The licensing model needs to be more flexible. How it works is that you can have from zero to 499 users at the first stage, then from 500 to 999 users at stage two, and so on. They need to be more flexible because when you exceed 1,000 users then you are supposed to deploy a separate appliance to cater to them.

The technical support could use some improvement.

We have been using the Cisco Web Security Appliance for three years.

The stability of this product is very good.

It is a scalable appliance that can integrate with my endpoint security appliances, as well as my core networking appliances. 

We acquired 200 additional licenses this year and we plan to continue increasing our usage.

We have been in contact with Cisco technical support and they are good. I would not say that they are the best, or highly recommended, but they are good.

The problem we experienced had to do with the ownership of the ticket. When we engage one engineer and explain everything, they continue to work on it until their shift ends. At that point, we have to explain everything to the next engineer, from scratch, and they continue to work on it. I think that one engineer should take ownership of the problem until it is complete.

We found the initial setup to be slightly complex because it was a new product for me and my team. We installed it in the Unity environment and tested it for quite some time. Then we deployed it slowly, starting with the back office and then rolling it out to the branches. The deployment took about four months to bring it from purchase, through a PoC, and into production.

Licensing fees are based on the number of users.

We evaluated several products but because we were already using Cisco, it was easy for us to get discounts on this appliance. It also integrated well with our existing environment.

My advice for anybody who is researching this appliance is to first determine exactly what it is that they require. There are a lot of applications and features but many of the features are useless for the organization. For example, if they do not need the DDoS features then they shouldn't get them and pay the additional fee.

I would rate this solution an eight out of ten.