Cisco Umbrella Overview

Cisco Umbrella is the #1 ranked solution in our list of top Web Security Gateways. It is most often compared to Zscaler Internet Access: Cisco Umbrella vs Zscaler Internet Access

What is Cisco Umbrella?

OpenDNS provides easy-to-implement Internet navigation and Web security solutions for families, schools, governmental organizations and businesses of all sizes. The services provided by OpenDNS increase the speed of navigating websites and prevent unintended access to phishing and malware sites as well as to any Web content that you configure to be restricted.

Cisco Umbrella is also known as OpenDNS.

Cisco Umbrella Buyer's Guide

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Cisco Umbrella Customers

Chart Industries, City of Aspen, Eastern Mountain Sports, FLEXcon, George Washington University, Jackson Municipal Airport Authority, Ohio Public Library Information Network, PTC, Richland Community College, Smart Motors, Tulane University, VeriClaim

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Pricing Advice

What users are saying about Cisco Umbrella pricing:

"Cisco has a model called ELA. With ELA, if you buy the solution you will have the complete security portfolio and you can pay it yearly or after three years, it depends on the contract."
"The licensing part for Umbrella is really flexible."
"There are three models for licensing with different feature sets."
"Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing and there are three subscription plans."
"I am not sure, I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I think it's $1.00 or so per device/month."

"There is a one-time cost of approximately $800 USD per user, and then a yearly support fee of about $50 per user."

Cisco Umbrella Reviews

Syed Ali Wajahat

Sr Network and Security Consultant (SDN & Security) at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Aug 28, 2019

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Offers protection from DNS-based attacks and improves visibility

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case for this solution is for DNS based attacks and for malware protection. It has a malware protection engine. If you install Cisco Umbrella Clients on the remote PC, you can do URL filtering, malware protection, and you can check the health and status of the device itself.

Pros and Cons

"It will protect, give you more robustness, and faster responses, compared to any firewalls or any of the proxy web servers."

"It would be useful if they had a malware protection engine running inside their own VM."

What other advice do I have?

If somebody is looking toward the Cisco Umbrella solution or if they have an NGIPS, NG firewalls, next-generation firewall solutions and if they are looking for DNS-based security, and if they are implementing it then Cisco Umbrella is a good solution. Keep that in mind that it will make a lot of noise, users will be blocked at the beginning and many of the URLs will be blocked. It will need to be fine-tuned. The fine-tuning is required one month after implementation. You will need to fine-tune the OpenDNS Cisco Umbrella database, just to have all the URLs there for your corporate environment…

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reviewer1411335

Technical Presales Consultant : Cisco Security at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

Sep 15, 2020

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Segmenting email and web proxy features stand out but missing pieces leave holes to be filled

What is our primary use case?

Cisco has its own cloud that they manage Umbrella on. So Umbrella is not like any part of AWS or Azure or GPP. Our use case for Umbrella all depends on our customer's requirements. Cisco Umbrella has many packages to help address these requirements. The current package which we are working on incorporating more is Cisco Umbrella SIG, which is the Secure Internet Gateway. It has just been launched as part of Umbrella and we are currently exploring its capabilities and utility for our clients. There are a lot of use cases for Umbrella, and for us those use cases include the following: * One of… more »

Pros and Cons

"Helps block personal email accounts."
"Web proxy adds an effective layer for security."

"Missing a real data leakage prevention solution."
"Data reporting could be improved."

What other advice do I have?

The advice that I would give someone looking at the Umbrella solution is that they can evaluate Umbrella because it is very easy to set up. You can get started discovering the product and do a little to check it out. They should make sure that all their use cases are covered by Umbrella. On a scale from one to ten (where one is the worst and ten is the best), I would rate Cisco Umbrella as somewhere between a seven-point-five to eight, personally. But I will give it a seven overall.

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reviewer1302957

NOC Lead at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

Sep 11, 2020

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Protection from malware for roaming employees that comes recommended

What is our primary use case?

I do not know what the latest version is that is currently installed, but it is cloud-based monitoring so it is one of the most recent versions. The primary use case is for endpoint users who are not working on our office premises. They are remote employees who are roaming so they are not within our protected zone. They can be vulnerabilities if they are browsing content and there is malware included on those web sites. Umbrella allows this kind of monitoring on remote devices and we can block those sites. We can also block applications which we would like not to allow to be running in the… more »

Pros and Cons

"Provides dependable DNS monitoring of external devices."
"The initial setup is very easy and takes only a few minutes."

"They need to improve analytics so they report on more of the specifics of user activity."

What other advice do I have?

My only real advice to people considering Umbrella is that I can recommend this solution. On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I can rate Cisco Umbrella as a nine-out-of-ten.

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Ayman Totounji

Chief Executive Officer at Cynexlink, LLC

Aug 6, 2020

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Before it lets you go, it filters and gives you the okay to move forward with the website you're looking for

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco Umbrella for web security and it's very good. It acts as web filtration combined with security and I am very supportive of it, especially with cybersecurity trending these days and the amount of malware and spyware out there. It's important for end-users to have some sort of protection when they're browsing the internet and this product does that. Before it lets you go, it filters and gives you the okay to move forward with the website you're looking for. A lot of customers tend to make typos when they're searching for websites, which then leads them to unknown websites that… more »

Pros and Cons

"It's very stable, reliable and does its job."

"It has happened in the past that Cisco Umbrella has denied us access to secure websites."

What other advice do I have?

I like this product and I'd really recommend it to everyone. Obviously, it's not the only product out there, but today, every endpoint should have multiple layers of security. You need to protect your users when they are browsing—open DNS. You need to protect them from emails, both inbound and outbound and you need to protect the endpoint from breaching. I would rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten.

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ITSystem8bce

IT Systems Engineer at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees

Jul 16, 2019

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Unifies our expanding environment, making troubleshooting and maintenance easier

What is our primary use case?

We act as an MSP for our organization, and we use this solution as part of the service. We are the parent company and we acquire insurance agencies. Typically, these agencies have between twenty and one hundred and twenty people. We do not force them to move onto our system; However, we show them what value they will receive by us taking on their network infrastructure. This includes the firewall, switches, IP phones, email platforms, etc.

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable feature of this solution is its reliability."

"Security, overall, can always be improved."

What other advice do I have?

This solution had been pretty good and it fits our needs. If we have business needs change then we will look at whether the current solution can do it. If not then we have to reach out and find something else. My advice to anybody who is researching this type of solution is to do their homework when it comes to comparing products. Compare apples to apples, and ensure feature parity. I would stress that the support organization behind the product is very important. For us, any of the other products that we've used just haven't performed up to the standards of what we are doing. I would rate…

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Daniel Borbely

Network Specialist at Syswind Kft.

Oct 16, 2020

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Easy to deploy, simple to manage, and extremely scalable

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use the solution as cloud security for our branches. It protects us from direct internet outbreaks.

Pros and Cons

"The solution is very easy to manage. We found the initial setup, for example, to be quite simple."

"The product can be pretty expensive."

What other advice do I have?

We are Cisco partners. We have a business relationship with them. We use various types of Umbrella. I'd recommend the solution. It's one of the best on the market and it works well in different environments. It's also extremely easy to deploy. Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I'd rate it at a nine.

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reviewer1461459

Team Lead Network Infrastructure at a tech services company with 1-10 employees

Dec 11, 2020

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Secure and flexible with no latency issues, and it is easy to set up

What is our primary use case?

We are service providers for all Cisco products. We have contracted a couple of schools for a proof of concept for the customers who purchase Cisco Umbrella. We have also deployed it to virtual machines in the customer's environment. We have also deployed Active Directory connectors, and we have directed the customer's traffic towards Cisco Umbrella and their DNS Service. We have also monitored and provided a course for the customers. This product can be used for DNS security. DNS security basically provides protection because Cisco thinks that 90% of the attacks come from DNS. So, they warn… more »

Pros and Cons

"I haven't found any issues related to latency or any other issue."

"Cisco Umbrella should introduce an on-premises device."

What other advice do I have?

We will continue to sell this product. I would recommend this solution to others who are interested in using it. I would rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten.

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SUDIPTABISWAS

Senior Manager - Information Technology at Emami Ltd

Jun 26, 2020

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Easy to set up and use, but deep packet inspection is needed and they should have a data center based in India

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco Umbrella to provide protection for our end-users. It prevents unauthorized access to their systems, as well as halts access to compromised sites, such as a ransomware site. Essentially, all of the malicious activity is prevented.

Pros and Cons

"The most valuable feature for us is the DNS-based protection."

"This solution does not give us full, 360-degree protection."

What other advice do I have?

This is a good product, although it does not have the features that I was looking for. At this time, it does not have the capabilities that are relevant to the Indian market. As such, we are thinking about uninstalling it and switching products. The suitability of this solution depends on the industry and requirements. It is important to remember that if you start with a product or approach, you may end up switching to something different. That said, if you want to begin with Cisco Umbrella to deal with malware then you can always change later if it doesn't perfectly fit your environment. This…

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