Cisco Secure Email and Microsoft Defender for Office 365 are key players in the email security category. Cisco Secure Email delivers superior threat intelligence integration, which distinguishes it in threat blocking, while Microsoft Defender for Office 365 excels in seamless integration within the Microsoft suite, enhancing its overall protection.
Features: Cisco Secure Email is notable for features like IronPort, Advanced Malware Protection, and DKIM/DMARC security. It effectively handles threats such as ransomware, spam, and spear-phishing and offers a customizable configuration. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 provides integrated protection with advanced features like Safe Attachments and Safe Links. Its integration with other Microsoft security solutions enhances threat visibility and user protection.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email needs enhancements in its user interface, license management, and integration capabilities. Users have suggested improvements in its configuration process and the addition of AI-driven anti-phishing features. Microsoft Defender for Office 365 requires better phishing detection, improved threat visibility, and more straightforward licensing models. Users seek greater transparency in pricing and improved documentation for advanced features.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Secure Email offers deployment options, including on-premises and hybrid solutions, and is praised for its responsive customer support. Microsoft Defender for Office 365, primarily cloud-based, integrates well within its ecosystem but could enhance support clarity and response times. Both products provide reliable technical support, though Cisco occasionally faces feedback on delays.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Email is often viewed as expensive but justifies its cost with robust security and a solid ROI due to effective threat blocking. Microsoft Defender for Office 365, part of Office 365 licensing, is seen as competitively priced, especially for users of Microsoft products, though some find its add-on costs challenging. Both solutions offer good value for comprehensive security benefits, with Cisco having higher expenses compared to Microsoft.
It has also decreased our time to detection and response by about 15 to 20 percent.
Overall, cost of owning and operating our system goes down.
It's hard to quantify the return on investment we've seen from Microsoft Defender for Office 365.
Cisco's tech support can be hit or miss, depending on the engineer you get.
The support is pretty decent, with a rating of eight out of ten.
Over the past two years, there have been no critical problems.
we opened tickets, and they typically resolve them quickly.
With a subscription for Microsoft Defender for Office 365, it is an eight. Without it, it is a six.
The on-premises hardware is not very scalable, but switching to the SaaS offering is expected to improve scalability.
We have never faced scalability problems, and Microsoft manages it effectively.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales transparently for us, as we grew from 1,000 users to 3,000 users, and we didn't notice much difference.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 scales with the growing needs of my company well.
Based on my experience, the stability of Cisco Secure Email is very strong.
I would rate the stability of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 as 10 over 10 because it's highly available, it works, and it does the job it is meant to do.
I have not experienced any downtime, crashes, or performance issues because of Defender.
The solution is stable, as we have been using it for the past two years.
The solution should better analyze the actual content rather than only focusing on the email header or origin.
It would be beneficial to have the functionality of the Email Threat Defense integrated into the Email Security Gateway so customers don't have to buy two products for full email protection.
The main area for improvement is simplifying the implementation and rollout process.
Microsoft could improve by offering recommendations for domain spoofing attacks, especially scenarios where DNS records like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are not properly published.
There is a different console for different things; I just want one consolidated console.
Its cost is bundled with other Cisco products.
The licensing is a mess and needs sorting out.
The pricing structure is good as it is user-based or email client-based, which is positive for clients.
We've likely saved 30% of costs.
Money-wise, it is a part of the Office 365 suite, making it slightly more expensive compared to Trend Micro.
Microsoft is quite affordable with a lot of features available for any size organization.
It also possesses multiple modules for spam detection, malware detection, and threat intelligence, which are valuable in categorizing emails and determining actions.
It is highly effective in catching phishing and spam emails.
It covers everything through email, like antivirus, IDS, and IPS.
It ranks the threats and allows us to prioritize those hitting us the hardest, such as email threats.
It provides end-to-end visibility on email threats such as phishing, extending beyond Exchange Online Protection.
The value of the DLP feature is significant to us because we have internal data, sometimes sensitive, and the users may not always be aware of security and privacy, which might lead them to send out information mistakenly to external parties.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Defender for Office 365 | 9.1% |
| Cisco Secure Email | 5.1% |
| Other | 85.8% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 18 |
| Large Enterprise | 25 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 23 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 10 |
| Large Enterprise | 31 |
Cisco Secure Email provides email security with advanced threat protection, spam filtering, and easy integration with Cisco Talos, ensuring comprehensive protection against cyber threats like phishing and malware.
Cisco Secure Email offers a comprehensive platform for organizations seeking robust email security. With advanced threat protection and seamless integration with Cisco Talos, it enhances threat intelligence. The tool provides easy-to-use spam blocking and granular policy customization. Effective ransomware, phishing, and malware protection ensures stable network performance. It includes logging and reporting features, along with Active Directory integration, delivering enhanced security without extra hardware. Although it addresses threats efficiently, improvements in synchronization with reporting tools and phishing detection are needed. Organizations find cost and licensing complexities challenging for smaller networks and seek more intuitive configuration, advanced AI threat detection, and comprehensive reporting. Enhanced support, documentation, and cross-platform compatibility are desirable for better management and scalability.
What are the most important features?In industries like finance, healthcare, and IT, Cisco Secure Email is key to securing email communications. It serves as the primary email gateway in datacenters, scanning and filtering emails to defend against phishing, malware, and spam. Many organizations integrate it with Sophos Antivirus and Talos Threat Intelligence for heightened protection. It plays a crucial role in outbound message control and data loss prevention, ensuring compliance with security policies.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a comprehensive security solution designed to protect organizations against advanced threats in their email, collaboration, and productivity environments. It combines the power of Microsoft's threat intelligence, machine learning, and behavioral analytics to provide real-time protection against phishing, malware, ransomware, and other malicious attacks.
With Microsoft Defender for Office 365, organizations can safeguard their email communication by detecting and blocking malicious links, attachments, and unsafe email content. It employs advanced anti-phishing capabilities to identify and prevent sophisticated phishing attacks that attempt to steal sensitive information or compromise user credentials.
This solution also offers robust protection against malware and ransomware. It leverages machine learning algorithms to analyze email attachments and URLs in real-time, identifying and blocking malicious content before it reaches users' inboxes. Additionally, it provides advanced threat-hunting capabilities, allowing security teams to proactively investigate and respond to potential threats.
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 goes beyond email protection and extends its security features to other collaboration tools like SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams. It scans files and documents stored in these platforms, ensuring that they are free from malware and other malicious content. It also provides visibility into user activities, helping organizations detect and mitigate insider threats.
Furthermore, this solution offers rich reporting and analytics capabilities, providing organizations with insights into their security posture and threat landscape. It enables security administrators to monitor and manage security incidents, track trends, and take proactive measures to enhance their overall security posture.
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