We performed a comparison between Cisco Secure Firewall and Zscaler Cloud Firewall 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.
"It's a firewall that secures our internal network. I have been using it since 2013, and I find that most of the features are advanced, and very user friendly."
"The solution is extremely reliable."
"It is a good source for firewall protection."
"I like Fortinet FortiGate's antispam filter, SPN, and clustering features."
"The product is easy to use and is stable. The SV1 functionality is a benefit."
"The stability of the solution is excellent, as it is with other Fortinet products."
"The solution has very good threat and content filtering switches."
"It's very easy to configure."
"For us, the most valuable features are the IPX and the Sourcefire Defense Center module. That gives us visibility into the traffic coming in and going out, and gives us the heads-up if there is a potential outbreak or potential malicious user who is trying to access the site. It also helps us see traffic generated by an end device trying to reach out to the world."
"I like the Cisco ASDM (Adaptive Security Device Manager), which is the configuration interface for the Cisco firewall."
"I am used to the ASA syntax, therefore it is quite easy to make up new rules. I have found that DNS doctoring rules are useful."
"The user interface is very easy to manage and find rules. You can do object searches, which are very easy. Also, the logging is very simple to use. So, it is a lot easier to troubleshoot and find items inside the firewall."
"Its in-depth monitoring and analysis help us to make better decisions and policies."
"The grouping of the solutions helps save time. If you have a problem and you have a high-level overview of the system, you can easily dig deeper into the problem. For example, I can check to see why ASA isn't working but the reason for the outage is actually because of Duo. I can spend a lot of time working in the wrong direction because I didn't have an overview."
"It is very stable compared to other firewall products."
"I found that setting up rules for HTTPS and SSH access to the management interface are straightforward, including setting the cypher type."
"Zscaler Cloud Firewall understands the applications in the current generation and adapts to the present generation cloud applications."
"Most of the features that Zscaler has to offer, we will deploy."
"It provides in-depth visibility into your network, ensuring that traffic flowing into your organization, be it from offices or individual users, is effectively filtered and secured through multiple layers of protection."
"The scalability is okay. We have around 2200 people using this solution."
"The visibility and log availability offered are highly valued for troubleshooting purposes, and this is a key factor driving customer interest in the firewall module."
"Zscaler provides effective protection against various cyber threats ensuring a safe environment"
"Once you have Zscaler running you have access to configure it however you want."
"The product’s firewall and VPN package are fantastic compared to any other solution."
"The solution could have licensing fees reduced in the future."
"I would like to see improvements with the antivirus and IPS as they are not working properly all the time."
"The debugging and troubleshooting has room for improvement."
"In terms of what could be improved, the SD-WAN is quite difficult, because if you install the new box, 15 is okay, but if you change from an old configuration, if there is already configuration and a policy when you change to SD-WAN, you must change the whole policy that you see in the interface."
"It should be more stable. There should be full integration within Fortinet products themselves as well as with other third-party products. Especially when you're not dealing with SIEM and the correlation of the security box, we want Fortinet to be able to share that information with as many other products as it can."
"I would like to see more advanced developments of a wireless controller in the future."
"Technical support needs to be improved."
"I think the only issue that needs improvement is the interface."
"There are always vulnerabilities that come up and there was one in early 2018 but this was patched with software updates."
"Most of the time, when I try to run Java, it is not compatible with ASA's current operating systems."
"If I want to activate IPS features on it, I have to buy another license. If I want Cisco AnyConnect, I have to buy another license. That's where we have challenges."
"We would like to see MS Word BPM as a feature."
"An area of improvement for this solution is the console visualization."
"It needs to provide the next-generation firewall features that other vendors provide, like data analytics, telemetry, and deep packet inspection."
"There's a little bit of a disconnect between Firepower’s management and the rest of the products, like DNA and Prime. The solution should have fewer admin portals for network, security, and firewalls."
"The central management tool is not comfortable to use. You need to have a specific skill set. This is an important improvement for management because I would like to log into Firepower, see the dashboard, and generate a real-time report, then I question my team."
"The issue right now is probably that Zscaler is not providing web browser isolation. Another solution, Menlo, offers this. For one customer, we had to send traffic to Menlo to do the isolation for us. It was requested by the customer so that they could integrate any iframe. Zscaler needs to add this type of feature in their next release."
"The product could improve its integration with some legacy systems."
"We are having some issues with internet access being denied when organizational ID-based policies change. For example, a lower level employee ends up getting the same level of access as that of a higher level employee."
"Pricing is a challenge."
"When it comes to customer support, there is room for improvement in Zscaler's service."
"They do not provide a few components that are fundamental to differentiate the products"
"Instead of the standard license, they should certainly provide customers with the visibility to access and view the logs."
"There are some areas it could improve when it comes to blocking, we have to block some things manually. For example, if we block a top-level domain we have seen that the new IPs come through, the IPs are not blocked. There should be some more granular way of doing it. My only request is if you're blocking something at a top level, the sub-level sub-domains and all those other IPs should be blocked too automatically."
Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 4th in Firewalls with 404 reviews while Zscaler Cloud Firewall is ranked 23rd in Firewalls with 15 reviews. Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.2, while Zscaler Cloud Firewall is rated 8.4. 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 Zscaler Cloud Firewall writes "A highly stable and comprehensive cloud security and access solution". Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense, Meraki MX, Sophos XG and Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, whereas Zscaler Cloud Firewall is most compared with Azure Firewall, Palo Alto Networks NG Firewalls, OPNsense, Sophos XG and Cisco Multicloud Defense. See our Cisco Secure Firewall vs. Zscaler Cloud Firewall report.
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