We performed a comparison between Cisco IOS Security and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Firewalls solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The technical support is great."
"Fortinet FortiGate is easy to use. Anyone can easily maintain it."
"The most valuable features of the solution are SD-WAN, filtering testing applications, web filtering, and the new VPN."
"The threat prevention is the solution's most valuable aspect."
"The usage in general is pretty good."
"The most valuable feature of Fortinet FortiGate is security. They are known for efficiency and are on the top of Gartner Quadrant reviews. Fortinet FortiGate has an easy-to-use platform with a good graphical interface. The configuration is simple and the solution provides an overall good layer of security."
"The most valuable features of Fortinet FortiGate are the ability to work in proxy mode, which other solutions, such as Palo Alto cannot. There are some features that are better that come at no extra license or subscriptions cost, such as basic SD-WAN. The DLT is useful, other solutions have the same feature too, such as Palo Alto."
"Fortinet FortiGate is scalable for our users. Right now, we have almost 70 users. We do not have any plan to increase our usage of FortiGate. For maintaining the firewall solution, one staff member is enough."
"Cisco has always been a premium product. There's a lot of other entry-level solutions. This is more robust."
"Cisco IOS Security has many good features, but compared to other solutions, it has a more user-friendly interface with steps to apply and manage rules. Another good part of the solution is that it's more straightforward."
"The most valuable features are DNS service and shell self-service within a network."
"The technical is excellent."
"The Intrusion Firewall is a valuable feature."
"Cisco IOS Security increases the overall security of our network, performs authentication, and provides level 15 access and privileges."
"It covers everything we need it to without looking to secondary solutions."
"The most valuable features of Cisco IOS Security are the plenty of functionality it provides, many people are IT certified the usage, and the user interface is good."
"Provision of quality training material and the reporting is very good."
"The structure is much faster and more sophisticated than Cisco."
"We standardized on the product and got rid of several other types of firewalls from different vendors."
"Protection from a single packet and ease of making security rules."
"In general, I appreciate the regular firewall function of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls."
"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls have a very nice interface for logging and monitoring. I find it easy to navigate and use, and the interface is organized as well. I can find answers within a couple of hours and have seen time savings."
"The application IDs, application controls, URL filtering, visibility, monitoring, and reporting are the most valuable features."
"You just need a web browser to manage it, unlike Cisco, which requires another management system."
"Fortinet FortiGate can improve by integrating the web application firewall and the DDoS protection part of the solution. Having a WAF feature, web application firewall, and proxy together would be a good benefit."
"It would be ideal if they had some sort of GUI interface for troubleshooting and diagnostics."
"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."
"With the addition of some features, it is possible that FortiGate can be used in all verticals."
"The graphical user interface of Fortinet's FortiGate product does not function well with text-based interfaces."
"Lacks sufficient security options."
"The captive portal could be improved."
"Some of the software stability could improve."
"The solution is complex and can be more user-friendly."
"Cisco IOS Security could improve its security features. There are competitors that have some additional security features, such as Fortinet FortiGate. Additionally, there should be better synchronization with Cisco IOS Security and other vendors, and improved AI features would be beneficial."
"I think they should bring back remote VPN for users."
"Most of their features are meant for Cisco. You cannot integrate them with any other vendor."
"We cannot directly upgrade the system. The tool's deployment is also very difficult in legacy environments. The tool needs to have bigger ports as well."
"We faced significant challenges related to licensing issues, particularly when licenses expire."
"The initial setup is complicated."
"The user interface needs to be improved."
"The biggest thing that needs to be improved with them is their training. I took a training class for the 8.0 build, then I took it again for the 9.0 and 10 builds. They add new features every time that they do a new major release, but the training doesn't keep up. It is the same basic training that probably was with the 3.0 build, and they just change the screenshots. I would love to see them do some more work since they have all these bells and whistles, but we don't know how to use those features on a large scale."
"Enhancements could potentially be made to the firmware to improve its inspectability."
"Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls do not provide a unified platform that natively integrates all security capabilities."
"They could improve their support and pricing and maybe integration. It's a little more expensive that Check Point but the quality is better. Integration with firewall endpoints could be better. Palo Alto does have very good malware or antivirus protection. I think they could improve on that front."
"We would like to see the external dynamic list for this solution improved. The current version does not automatically block malicious IP addresses, which would be very useful."
"In the last three years at least, they have been lagging behind their competitors. The main issue is the support that we can get... You have to wait for them to get back to you and sometimes it's random. And the biggest problem I have is that you have to wait hours on the line when you're calling them to get a hold of the next available engineer."
"With new features and applications you get bugs."
"Currently, they don't have email protection. They can maybe add it in the future. Currently, if you want to do so, you need to go with another solution."
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Cisco IOS Security is ranked 22nd in Firewalls with 47 reviews while Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is ranked 6th in Firewalls with 164 reviews. Cisco IOS Security is rated 8.0, while Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is rated 8.6. The top reviewer of Cisco IOS Security writes "User-friendly and excels in documentation, making it easier to resolve issues". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls writes "We get reports back from WildFire on a minute-by-minute basis". Cisco IOS Security is most compared with Cisco Secure Firewall, Fortinet FortiOS, Meraki MX and Netgate pfSense, whereas Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls is most compared with Check Point NGFW, Azure Firewall, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Netgate pfSense. See our Cisco IOS Security vs. Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls report.
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