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Cisco Security Cloud Control vs Fortinet FortiGate Cloud comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 22, 2025

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 Security Cloud Control
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
14th
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
15
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud
Ranking in Firewall Security Management
5th
Average Rating
8.4
Reviews Sentiment
7.7
Number of Reviews
77
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Firewall Security Management category, the mindshare of Cisco Security Cloud Control is 1.0%, down from 1.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is 5.1%, down from 5.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Firewall Security Management
 

Featured Reviews

Vivek Balaji - PeerSpot reviewer
Useful guides, excellent support, integration could improve
Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users Cisco Defense Orchestrator can improve by providing more support for third-party security components. I have been using Cisco Defense Orchestrator for approximately eight months. The Cisco Defense…
IgnitiusMolepo - PeerSpot reviewer
The hub-and-spoke setup is useful because I can manage security from where I am, while the IT engineers in branch offices can handle it on their end.
When we're upgrading, it's sometimes quite challenging, especially firmware. We usually don't upgrade unless we have a bug, and we still feel it's not safe to react instead of being proactive. We often have some delays when updating FortiGuard, too. Nevertheless, I believe that it's okay most of the time with proper management. We also run into some problems using FortiGate as a UTM solution. I feel like maybe they're not giving me a full view of the other components that they have in that box. Their box has some DDoS defense, but I need complete DDoS protection. I must not have light DDoS protection on other UTM boxes because if I'm uncertain about the security posture, it will compromise me. We like having everything in one box because running multiple boxes eats up more resources on the computing level. We need a total solution, not half-half.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"If we have a firewall go down, I can hop into CDO, pull the latest configuration off and apply it. That's really good. It helps save time."
"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."
"For this product, they are very uncharacteristically interested in resolving whatever issue the customer reports. They're really attentive, and they address whatever we bring up as quickly as they can. That's been a very positive aspect of the product."
"The most valuable feature is that you can push one policy or one rule out to several devices at a time."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator has useful guides for the steps that need to follow by users."
"When we're looking to the policies, it identifies the shadow rules. It notifies us about anything that will supersede other rules."
"The bulk changes feature is definitely the most valuable."
"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."
"FortiGate Cloud's most valuable feature is that it's 100% managed."
"The ability to manage everything from the cloud is going to be the most valuable by far with this solution."
"The main advantage of FortiGate Cloud is its reliability, scalability, and pricing."
"The most valuable features are management and integration."
"The most effective features for managing cyber threats are IPS and application control."
"It is easy to integrate the tool."
"The solution is quite stable. I haven't had issues with it crashing on me. I don't recall running into any bugs or glitches. It's very reliable so far."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud is the logs are stored longer on this cloud version. If you have the on-premise version you will not be able to store the logs for more than one or two months."
 

Cons

"I've found dozens of bugs over the year we've been using it. The more I use it for different things, the more problems I find... Most of the problems have to do with the user interface. A lot of thought and work has gone into the back-end component to make the product do what it's intended to do, but the way it is presented for use hasn't gotten nearly as much thought to make it smart and bug-free."
"I'd like CDO to be the one-stop-shop where we could do all the configurations easily. It would be nice, for ASA upgrades, if we could do them from a central repository and not have to reach out to Cisco. That would be a definite plus."
"Cisco Defense Orchestrator should be made more user-friendly overall."
"If I make a change locally to the firewall, CDO gives an alarm or an error message and says there's a change in compliance: "The firewall has this configuration but the last time it was compiled it had that configuration." That view of new changes versus the old could be better... I had to log in manually, locally on the firewall, to check which version, which configuration was actually running. I couldn't see it in CDO."
"They can centralize all products and provide a correlation about an incident and the response. They can also provide an on-premises solution. Currently, Cisco Defense Orchestrator is just for cloud deployments, not for on-premises deployments. Customers have to manage it on the cloud. We are based in Vietnam, and most of the customers here prefer to have on-premises deployments. Customers, especially from banking and government sectors, do not prefer to do anything on the cloud. Some of the small enterprises use the cloud."
"It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances."
"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."
"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."
"There are some areas that need improvement regarding customer support."
"The platform's analytics and reporting components could be improved."
"They could improve the product features for telemetry and interoperability with third-party monitoring tools."
"The improvements in pricing could make the product more accessible to a broader range of clients."
"The only area that requires improvement is the login reports. We aim to integrate it with our local mobile service provider."
"Some reports generated from Fortinet FortiGate Cloud are very organizational. It would be beneficial to allow the customers customization of reports."
"However, the absence of certain features like CLI is a drawback."
"The robustness of the software could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"If you compare to what is available on the market, they are in the same range with respect to pricing."
"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."
"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."
"It is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
"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."
"It's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
"The price fits the needs of our clients and it is adjustable by Defender."
"The product cost varies based on company budgets, but for us, it's reasonably priced considering the value it provides."
"The solution is relatively cost-effective compared to alternatives."
"The solution is neither cheap nor expensive."
"The price of FortiGate Cloud is generally cheaper than other similar products."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a one or two. The pricing is suitable for our company."
"The pricing is mid-ranged, it's not very expensive but it's not the cheapest or most affordable in the market."
"When comparing this solution to others it is less expensive and there is an annual license required."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
52%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Legal Firm
3%
Computer Software Company
19%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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 ...
What do you like most about Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
Fortinet FortiGate Cloud has valuable firewall, SSL VPN, and web filtering features.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
I am very satisfied with the price and licensing cost of Fortinet FortiGate Cloud, rating it an eight out of ten.
What needs improvement with Fortinet FortiGate Cloud?
Some reports generated from Fortinet FortiGate Cloud are very organizational. It would be beneficial to allow the customers customization of reports. This customization would enable organizations t...
 

Also Known As

Cisco Defense Orchestrator, CDO
FortiCloud, FortiGate Cloud
 

Interactive Demo

Demo not available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
Black Gold Regional Schools, Amadeus Hospitality, Jefferson County, Chunghwa Telecom, City of Boroondara, Dimension Data
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco Security Cloud Control vs. Fortinet FortiGate Cloud and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,335 professionals have used our research since 2012.