Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vs Cisco Security Cloud Control comparison

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vs. Cisco Security Cloud Control

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Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Secure Firewall Manag...

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

9th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.4

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cisco Security Cloud Control

Ranking in Firewall Security Management

13th

Average Rating

8.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is 1.9%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Security Cloud Control is 2.9%, up from 1.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Firewall Security Management Mindshare Distribution
Product	Mindshare (%)
Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center	1.9%
Cisco Security Cloud Control	2.9%
Other	95.2%

Firewall Security Management

Featured Reviews

reviewer2290770

Sr. Solutions Architect, Consulting Engineer at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Centralized firewall policies have strengthened security posture and simplified threat management

So far, I find that everything related to Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is adequate. The only thing that was missing in the portfolio was SD-WAN, which I would like to use similar to Fortinet. Now Cisco has published the 120 series and the 1100 series, which support SD-WAN features in the firewall. I have not tried it myself yet, but I intend to use it and configure it as an SD-WAN gateway. When I use it, I will be able to provide feedback on whether there is anything new or if everything is adequate, but I have not used it or configured it by my hand till now.

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Francisco Delos Santos

Security Engineer at Metrobank

Automation reduces intervention and speeds up threat prevention

Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks. Since the system is automated,…

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"The technical support team is responsive and supportive."

"The solution is quite scalable."

"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center has been protecting our network; the fact that it's working as mentioned is its main value."

"So far, I am very satisfied with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, and I have not considered additional features such as the analytics part of the product."

"The solution is useful and powerful."

"My clients have never contacted me with any issues, so I believe the solution is stable."

"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is scalable."

"The solution is easy to use."

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center pros

"I like the upgrade feature. That is pretty valuable to me because I have dual ASAs and when I go through CDO it does it for me pretty well. It's all done in the back-end and I don't really have to be involved. I just initiate, pick the image, and I pick when I want it done and it just does it, whether I have a single ASA or have a dual ASA."

"The most valuable feature is the Intrusion prevention."

"The initial setup was straightforward. We spun up the VM onsite. We generated the key that it needed to talk to the Cloud Orchestrator. After that, as I started adding devices, it was relatively quick and easy."

"When we're looking to the policies, it identifies the shadow rules. It notifies us about anything that will supersede other rules."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."

"The most valuable feature is that you can push one policy or one rule out to several devices at a time."

"The most valuable feature is the automation, as it reduces user intervention and allows us to focus on other tasks."

"The most valuable feature is being able to do centralized upgrades on the ASAs. We can select all of those ASAs, and say, "Upgrade these ASAs at this scheduled time." It will copy down the ASA image, ASDM image, and then do the upgrade and failovers, and then put it all back into service as required at a scheduled time. It automates that process for us."

More Cisco Security Cloud Control pros

Cons

"The tool is a little bit pricey. I was not involved much with finance, but it appeared to be really expensive."

"I recommend they work on usability and ensure the solution is more user-friendly."

"Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center's logging functionality could be improved."

"The initial setup is a bit complex."

"It takes five to seven minutes to push one policy."

"The IOS and the deploy option could be improved."

"The product's setup could be easier."

"Cisco Firepower has been effective in solving various problems, but it could be improved by making it simpler and more user-friendly like Fortinet."

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center cons

"CDO doesn't have a report, an official report that I can check daily. It has another module called FTD, but it doesn't have that specifically for ASA. In the reporting, there are a lot of things that aren't there. There is also room for improvement in the daily monitoring."

"The dashboard needs to be more customizable to provide better reporting for our network."

"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components."

"When logging into the device, we sort of had problems with it staying in sync. If somebody made a change onsite, it wouldn't do an automatic sync. It would have to wait, as you would have to do a manual sync up."

"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up."

"It would be a better product if it incorporated device control for third-party products easily."

More Cisco Security Cloud Control cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"As for pricing, the tool is expensive for us. I'd rate it eight out of ten on a scale where ten is the most expensive."

"It could be considered relatively cheaper when compared to some other vendors in the market."

"The solution is not expensive."

"When you are using a Cisco solution you know it will be expensive. Cisco makes you pay for everything individually. We pay for the licenses that we need."

"I rate Secure Firewall Management Center eight out of 10 for pricing."

"One of the advantages of Cisco is its range of flexible licensing options."

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"Technical support is an additional annual cost and is not included with the license."

More Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center pricing and cost advice

"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."

"After our free trial was done we got a subscription for three years and it was under $3,000 or so. It's part of the EA we already paid for, so I don't know what it would be if it was a la carte."

"I work with a lot of clients, and the price or value of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator can vary from one client to another. If you have a lot of Cisco solutions, the price of the Cisco Defense Orchestrator is justified. Whereas if you have some security components from other vendors, such as Check Point or Palo Alto. This solution would be a pretty expensive proposition considering that they don't integrate with them well."

"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."

"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."

"It is about a $100 per year for an ASA 5506 firewall, and from there it keeps going up if you have a bigger box. For example, the 5516 is $200 to $300 per year."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Marketing Services Firm

15%

Manufacturing Company

Computer Software Company

Performing Arts

Computer Software Company

13%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Outsourcing Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	12
Midsize Enterprise	9
Large Enterprise	7

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	6
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	5

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

The platform has significantly enhanced our organization's operations by providing secure communication channels between different office locations.

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

I find the pricing for Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to be very reasonable, as they offer the license for both virtual and hardware options. For the virtual option, they have minimum lice...

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

What needs improvement with Cisco Defense Orchestrator?

Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall. Currently, to use it effectively, one must be specific with the rule set that needs to be set up. Additionally, I suggest impro...

What is your primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator?

Our primary use case for Cisco Defense Orchestrator is the automation of playbooks. We primarily use it for this purpose to streamline processes.

What advice do you have for others considering Cisco Defense Orchestrator?

Those who want to use Cisco Defense Orchestrator should build their own use case and see if it fits their environment. The most significant benefit for us is the response time because it automates ...

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

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Tufin Orchestration Suite vs Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

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Compared 18% of the time

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Compared 15% of the time

Skybox Security Suite vs Cisco Security Cloud Control

Compared 12% of the time

Palo Alto Networks Panorama vs Cisco Security Cloud Control

Compared 11% of the time

Fortinet FortiPortal vs Cisco Security Cloud Control

Compared 6% of the time

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Product Reports

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Download Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center product report

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center report

Cisco Security Cloud Control

Download Cisco Security Cloud Control product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cisco Defense Orchestrator, CDO

Interactive Demo

Demo not available

Cisco

Overview

The Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is the administrative nerve center for select Cisco security products running on multiple platforms. It provides unified management of Cisco Secure Firewalls with Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) software for port and protocol control, application control, IPS, URL filtering, and malware protection functions. Firewall Management Center is the centralized event and policy manager for:

● Cisco Secure Firewall with the Firewall Threat Defense (FTD) OS

● Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services

● Cisco Secure IPS (Firepower Next-Gen IPS / NGIPS)

● Cisco FirePOWER Threat Defense for ISR

● Cisco Malware Defense (AMP)

Cisco

Cisco Security Cloud Control offers centralized management, real-time visibility, and AI-driven automation for on-premises and cloud environments, simplifying scalability and deployment.

With a unified approach, Cisco Security Cloud Control enhances security posture by providing cross-platform insights across Cisco's ecosystem. It accelerates threat detection and optimizes policy enforcement through a blend of AI automation and natural language querying capabilities. The intuitive platform serves multiple devices, enabling comprehensive management of Secure Firewall, Secure Access, and other services with guidance from the Cisco AI Assistant. It also includes an AI Operations feature that identifies critical issues and provides real-time insights, enhancing response times while a policy analyzer improves security hygiene by detecting and closing security gaps. Its automation minimizes manual tasks, secures cloud-stored configurations, and supports two-factor authentication. However, it could benefit from improvements in navigation clarity, bulk change handling, and expanded third-party integrations.

What are the key features of Cisco Security Cloud Control?

Centralized Device Control: Streamlines management with bulk policy upgrades and automation.
AI-Driven Automation: Reduces manual tasks and enhances threat detection.
Network Visibility: Provides insights with valuable reporting and intrusion prevention.
Intuitive Configuration: Enables easy policy adjustments and restoration of secure connections.

What benefits can users anticipate?

Increased Efficiency: Reduces operational overhead with centralized management.
Improved Security: Enhances protection through automated policy enforcement and AI insights.
Time Savings: Simplifies management of multiple devices in cloud and on-premises environments.
Scalability: Supports growth with ease of deployment and policy consistency.

Industries implementing Cisco Security Cloud Control leverage its capabilities for tasks ranging from firewall management to intrusion prevention. Enterprises use it to streamline policy management, automate configurations, and integrate Cisco devices with cloud strategies, benefiting from simplified security orchestration and network segmentation.

Cisco

Sample Customers

Information Not Available

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center vs. Cisco Security Cloud Control