We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and SonicWall NSv 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."Fortinet FortiGate is stable. It's used across all the countries, this is the way most multinationals run their system."
"The features that I have found most valuable are the SD-WAN and their IP4 policy."
"This solution has helped our organization by having strong functions and a reliable firewall."
"The notable features that I have found most valuable are that it includes the antivirus, and also IPS, and even SD-WAN."
"UTM/NGFW features and FortiCloud for logs and backups are awesome."
"The solution can scale well."
"The most valuable feature is the SSL VPN, as it allows us to connect and it separates this product from other firewalls."
"Initial setup is straightforward. There weren't too many issues with setting it up. It takes one hour or so."
"Being able to determine our active users vs inactive users has led us to increased productivity through visibility. Also, if an issue was happening with our throughput, then we wouldn't know without research. Now, notifications are more proactively happening."
"The integration and configuration were pretty straightforward."
"The solution's dashboard is fine, and in terms of support, Cisco is better than other OEMs in the market."
"Its ability to discover attacks is a valuable feature. All of the other features that have to do with security are good."
"The most valuable Cisco Secure Firewall features are options, features, and ease of deployment because it's an appliance."
"It's a flexible solution."
"Application inspection, network segmentation, and encrypted traffic detection or encrypted traffic analysis (ETA) are valuable for our customers."
"The product is quite robust and durable."
"The customization of firewall rules provides great value to our customers as it allows them to lock things up in the way that they desire. When it is used for internal access, with a VPN in place for remote workers, the firewalling services provided by Azure, such as the default services that can be turned on, are applied. However, the use of a software-based virtual firewall gives us greater flexibility in introducing security controls for customers who are publishing applications that are publicly accessible from the public cloud. This virtual firewall provides an additional layer of security and more extensive security control options to ensure the protection of our customers' valuable information and assets."
"We purchased the AGSS Bundle (Advanced Gateway Security Suite) for the security services, such as antivirus, intrusion prevention system, and anti-spyware botnet GUI."
"One of the standout features of SonicWall is its simplicity in creating and managing rules."
"The product helps improve our security."
"The security of this system is fantastic, including the IPS and IDS."
"SonicWall NSV is easy to use, and you can use it to manage the logs easily."
"The solution has no additional charges and no restrictions on the number of users."
"FortiGate should have a better way of detecting and managing the system memory because otherwise if the memory is too low, a system restart is required."
"They should improve high CPU and memory usage that occurs."
"We'd like more management across other integrations."
"It is very expensive, and their support is not very good. I hope that their technical support will be better in the future."
"Its reporting can be improved. Sometimes, I don't get proper reports."
"Maybe they could make some features more accessible, such as a way to translate directions between two networks that share the same subnets."
"NGN, reporting and controls."
"The reporting in Fortinet FortiGate could improve. Customers are having to purchase additional reporting components. When I have used the Sophos solution it is a complete solution, in Fortinet FortiGate you have to use additional tools to have the features needed."
"If the implementation was easier, it would be a lot better for us."
"As it’s a GenX firewall, expertise for both implementation and troubleshooting the pain points can be a challenge. This could be a concern when companies are thinking about buying this product."
"We have to rely on Cisco ASDM to access the firewall interface. This needs improvement. Because we have a web-based interface, and it is a lot more user-friendly."
"A memory leakage issue which literally freeze the nodes (we have an HA environment). The issue is still not solved and the only recommendation from Cisco is to reboot the node."
"The only drawback of the user interface is when it comes to policies. When you open it and click on the policies, you have to move manually left and right if you want to see the whole field within the cell. Checkpoint has a very detailed user interface."
"The solution has not had any layer upgrades. It does not have layer five and upwards, it only has up to layer four. This has caused some problems for us."
"The one thing that the ASAs don't have is a central management point. We have a lot of our environments on FTD right now. So, we are using a Firewall Management Center (FMC) to manage all those. The ASAs don't really have that, but they are easy to use if you physically go into them and manage them."
"We only have an issue with time sync with Cisco ASA and NTP. If the time is out of sync, it will be a disaster for the failover."
"It has been brought to our attention by a few customers that they are dissatisfied with the fact that our virtualized service is only offered as a subscription option on the cloud. However, it is worth noting that many other similar services are also offered through a subscription model on the cloud and not through perpetual licensing. It is unclear why these customers would have an issue with this subscription service when so many others are utilizing similar methods."
"SonicWall NSV's initial setup is complicated and requires good knowledge."
"There are limitations to bandwidth management."
"SonicWall NSV's SSL VPN could increase its number of users to 100-plus users."
"An area that could be improved is the export and import settings functionality."
"We face some challenges when we upgrade the solution."
"I would like to see the reporting opened up and have several more opportunities for automatic reports."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while SonicWall NSv is ranked 35th in Firewalls with 7 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while SonicWall NSv is rated 8.0. The top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Highlights and helps us catch Zero-day vulnerabilities traveling across our network". On the other hand, the top reviewer of SonicWall NSv writes "Easy to use, stable, and the security features work well". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas SonicWall NSv is most compared with Azure Firewall, SonicWall NSa, SonicWall TZ and Fortinet FortiGate-VM. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. SonicWall NSv report.
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