

Cisco Secure Email and Proofpoint Email Protection compete in the email security domain, with Proofpoint often having the edge due to superior contextual analytics and threat detection.
Features: Cisco Secure Email is known for AMP Threat Grid Sandboxing and SecureX integration, providing real-time threat intelligence and enhanced malware protection. It includes powerful trajectory and logging features for immediate threat analysis. Proofpoint Email Protection excels with TAP and TRAP features, offering comprehensive spam filtering and email threat defense.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Email could enhance UI intuitiveness, phishing protection through AI, and streamline the reporting appliances. It also has room to improve its license management. Proofpoint Email Protection could benefit from improved multi-tenant administration, better integration with complex environments, and more accurate search capabilities to reduce false positives.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Secure Email can be deployed on-premises, hybrid, or in the cloud, though setup can be complex. Cisco's customer service is generally well-regarded but varies in response times. Proofpoint Email Protection is primarily cloud-based, offering easy deployment and handling, though its customer service has variable responsiveness and price concerns.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Email is a premium product seen as expensive, yet it provides good ROI by preventing breaches. Its Smart Licensing model is considered user-friendly. Proofpoint is generally perceived as more expensive, with debated cost-effectiveness for small businesses, but offers value through reduced workload and enhanced security. ROI is achieved via robust security measures and less email workload.
The ideal situation would be to have all these portals combined into one unified dashboard.
The time required for email investigations and responses has changed with Proofpoint Email Protection's visibility and automation.
If you implement these kinds of solutions in your security stack, the first beneficial thing will be that you will not suffer any malware, and you will not face attacks, which ultimately leads to financial benefit.
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.
I am familiar with the granular policy control feature of Proofpoint Email Protection, and I find their support excellent for modifying those policies.
I rate customer support a three out of ten mainly because of the phishing attacks that are getting through.
Sometimes I get some really great responses and analysts, but sometimes when their cloud services have a failure, they are slow to respond and tell me about it, though they have been improving.
The on-premises hardware is not very scalable, but switching to the SaaS offering is expected to improve scalability.
Proofpoint is scalable for multi-site organizations with thousands of users.
Proofpoint Email Protection is a scalable solution that very much fits our capacity requirements.
Proofpoint Email Protection is quite scalable.
Based on my experience, the stability of Cisco Secure Email is very strong.
It was very rock solid.
Sometimes, when creating connectors for implementing with Google Workspace, we encounter challenges because both Google Workspace and Proofpoint Email Protection do not have very good documentation on how to do this.
When evaluating the stability of Proofpoint Email Protection in regards to downtime, bugs, and glitches, it comes and goes in waves.
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 older legacy user interface just took a little to work with, and the new unified interface, as it was able to do more and more of the functionality of the old one, the product just got easier and easier to use.
Proofpoint could expand its phishing detection capabilities to improve its efficiency.
More security could be implemented.
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.
Customers pay around $90,000 yearly for a 1,000-user organization, with the subscription license being the main expense, apart from implementation fees.
Given my other experience with other vendors, I think they are a bit on the high end and a bit on the pricey end for the email security functionality that we were using.
Additional costs do come in, but it enhances security.
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.
The main feature I find most effective is that Proofpoint Email Protection scans emails and quarantines the doubtful ones.
The most beneficial feature of Proofpoint Email Protection is mostly spam filtering; it was very efficient, and we were very happy with the functionality as only relevant emails were allowed for mailboxes.
I appreciate that it's the industry leader, and its firewalling is very easy to manage and implement.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Proofpoint Email Protection | 8.1% |
| Cisco Secure Email | 5.1% |
| Other | 86.8% |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 18 |
| Large Enterprise | 25 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 22 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 16 |
| Large Enterprise | 21 |
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.
Proofpoint Email Protection provides powerful filtering against spam, phishing, and malware, leveraging effective threat detection and blocking capabilities. This solution integrates smoothly with platforms like Office 365, offering a user-friendly dashboard for seamless operations.
Proofpoint Email Protection focuses on email security, ensuring protection against phishing, malware, and spam. It includes features like URL scanning, anti-phishing, anti-virus protection, and sandboxing for comprehensive threat analysis. Its advanced analytics through TAP and TRAP, along with strong integration abilities, make it appealing for handling email threats. While scalability and ease of deployment are advantages, challenges such as integration in complex environments, the cost, and limited local support require attention. Enhancements in search functionality, email encryption, and improved phishing detection are also needed.
What are the key features of Proofpoint Email Protection?
What benefits and ROI should users look for in reviews?
Industries adopting Proofpoint Email Protection include finance, healthcare, and education sectors, which benefit from its robust email security measures. Educational institutions prioritize safe communication for staff and students, while healthcare organizations focus on protecting sensitive patient data. Financial services benefit from preventing data breaches and fraud through advanced threats management.
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