Cisco Defense Orchestrator vs Skybox Security Suite comparison

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1,093 views|325 comparisons
100% willing to recommend
Skybox Security Logo
4,615 views|3,287 comparisons
85% willing to recommend
Comparison Buyer's Guide
Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Defense Orchestrator and Skybox Security Suite based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out what your peers are saying about AlgoSec, Tufin, Palo Alto Networks and others in Firewall Security Management.
To learn more, read our detailed Firewall Security Management Report (Updated: April 2024).
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Featured Review
Quotes From Members
We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use.
Here are some excerpts of what they said:
Pros
"There are a lot of templates that are already built-in. They give you quick-to-create and quick-to-apply policies that are typically a little more complicated for people.""With Cisco Defense Orchestrator, we can manage the complete Cisco Security solution. It provides a simple and centralized way to manage all products.""We use a lot of image upgrades. We take some 20 devices and then we update everything at once, including the policies. We apply policies for groups. For certain groups, like anti-viruses, we send out policies and apply them to every single device. It's really easy and simple.""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.""I like the upgrade feature. That is pretty valuable to me because I have dual ASAs and when I go through CDO it does it for me pretty well. It's all done in the back-end and I don't really have to be involved. I just initiate, pick the image, and I pick when I want it done and it just does it, whether I have a single ASA or have a dual ASA.""The ability to see the uptimes on the different VPNs that we have configured for site-to-site.""When we're looking to the policies, it identifies the shadow rules. It notifies us about anything that will supersede other rules."

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"The solution's most valuable and unique assets are the vulnerability management and change management solutions because they identify mistakes in the network before implementation which reduces risks.""It's given us more visibility in terms of what are the kinds of configurations that are on these devices, and how many of these are stale rules. So it's helped greatly in terms of cleaning up of rules, for sure. And it has definitely given us a more secure way of backing up the configuration on these devices.""Correlates logs and threats and prioritizes; provides network maps;p provides change result context and resulting vulnerability.""Robust modules can be used for different parts of network security.""The way that it's built with three-tier architecture, it makes it very horizontally scalable, so I can have multiple fallbacks. If one machine does fall offline, there are four other machines that are doing the exact same job to pick it up""It has a good policy management feature and can provide customers with good quality outputs.""The solution's simplicity of use is its most valuable feature.""Key features for us include the firewall change audit every week. Also, being able to track firewall ACL usage, so that we can produce semiannual reports on ACL usage and shadowed and redundant rules on the firewall."

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Cons
"The main thing that would useful for us would the logging and monitoring. I have to check it out, to get the beta, because I don't have access to them... I wanted CDO to be a central place so where I could do everything but right now I don't think that's possible. I really don't want to go back and forth between this and FMC. Maybe the logging portion, when I look at it, will give me some similarities.""We had some MX devices that were blocking Windows Update from happening. We found out it was a Meraki issue, but it would have been nice if it had been flagged for us: "Hey, these updates are failing because the MX is blocking it." It wasn't a huge problem, but there was a loss of our time as well as the fact that the updates didn't get pushed out... It would have been nice if CDO had let us know that that was an issue.""It should have more features to manage FirePOWER appliances.""It would be a better product if it incorporated device control for third-party products easily.""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.""The dashboard needs to be more customizable to provide better reporting for our network.""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."

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"There is room for improvement in pricing. It would be better, especially if a customer bought all four modules.""The Network Assurance, which helps to create the network model, is not so rich.""Change Manager can be improved. If they can improve Change Manager so that whatever we want to do on a firewall, we are able to do it through Change Manager, it will be helpful for us. Whenever we are doing a change, it only does them at an L3 and L4 level, but all the firewalls are at the application layer. So, whatever needs to be done on the firewall, we aren't able to get it done through Change Manager. Currently, this functionality is not there because of which we are sometimes losing customers. I can create a role on Layer 3, Layer 4, but when it comes to the application layer, such as configuring and defining URLs or other things at the application level, it can't be done through Change Manager. Customers demand that they should be able to do everything through Change Manager. They don't want to do it through some other mechanism to accomplish their complete change management policy. They don't want to use a firewall manager because sometimes, they don't have any manager. They ask if they can use our solution so that a manager is not required. If Change Manager can do all the management automatically without involving any other manager, it will be great. They can also provide better integration with other managers so that everything can be done through a central point.""The only place where Skybox has room for improvement, and they're working on releasing this, it's just a slow-go, is the UI. The user interface has historically been via a locally installed thick client. They are moving to a web-based console and it's slowly coming out.""The solution needs to move improve its interface to a full web browser version that is more accessible and doesn't require installation for use.""The solution was quite technical. It would be easier to manage if the solution was more specific about aspects of the solution and provided more advisory around how to use it effectively. It would help users a lot if they were more clear about everything.""There are multiple dashboards but no custom dashboard. It would be good to include a custom dashboard so that we can actually choose which field and what kinds of things we want to look at.""There is room for improvement in the technical support."

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Pricing and Cost Advice
  • "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's around £500 per unit for a three-year license."
  • "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 is covered under the CIsco Enterprise License Agreement (ELA). So, it is licensed and ours."
  • "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."
  • More Cisco Defense Orchestrator Pricing and Cost Advice →

  • "I think for the cost, what we got definitely is worth it. The only caution I would give is that whenever you license for Firewall Assurance at the same time, for some weird reason, you have to get one Network Assurance license, just to manage one firewall. That's a little bit of overkill. But otherwise, in general, the pricing is fairly okay."
  • "The pricing is high, and the licensing model needs more flexibility."
  • "The product's pricing is excellent value. In terms of licensing, make sure you understand your network components, all your hops through your network, thoroughly, before you decide on the total cost. If you want to do point-to-point flow analysis and such, you need to have the configuration of all the devices in between point A and point B. A lot of people don't realize all their network components until they start using this product."
  • "I've seen the pricing of every solution on the market. When you compare apples to apples, where Skybox becomes exceedingly expensive is if you look at it compared to something like FireMon that only does a fraction of what Skybox does. But if you include everything that Skybox does, it becomes way more expensive than the competition, but you're also not comparing apples to apples. If you look at FireMon, and you look at like just the firewall assurance piece, they are fairly comparable and, actually, Skybox comes in a little bit cheaper in some cases, depending on which product you're looking at."
  • "The pricing has increased exorbitantly in the last few years, so now it is questionable. Now, it makes me want to review other products."
  • "With licensing, the number of network nodes becomes very expensive to the point where you have to rationalize if the tools are warranted anymore."
  • "Fully understand the total cost of ownership. They have gone to a new model where you have to replace the hardware every X amount of years at a very substantial cost and fully understand your intended number of nodes. To operate a firewall, you have to pay two licenses, a firewall node and a network node. If you are a reasonable-sized organization, this gets expensive very quickly."
  • "Pricing is on the higher side. In terms of licensing, you should buy the complete suite rather than buying only the Change Manager. I think Change Manager with Vulnerability Control is something that would be interesting to look at."
  • More Skybox Security Suite Pricing and Cost Advice →

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    Questions from the Community
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    Top Answer:When you import all the assets that you have, like desktops, servers, networks, devices, routers, and then firewalls, and other products, then Skybox makes like, a model of the network, but with… more »
    Top Answer:You always negotiate a little bit when the price is in question. But, the price could be a little bit smaller. Maybe it could offer additional discounts when you buy all the modules. Because end users… more »
    Top Answer:There is room for improvement in pricing. It would be better, especially if a customer bought all four modules.
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    4,615
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    7.5
    Comparisons
    Also Known As
    CDO
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    Overview

    Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) is a cloud-based management solution designed to ensure streamlined and consistent security policies across the Cisco security portfolio. Specifically tailored to manage all Cisco Secure Firewall form factors (running either ASA or Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) software), CDO offers real-time visibility and troubleshooting capabilities, effectively enhancing overall network security.

    CDO addresses the challenges of migration, supporting transitions from on-premises to cloud environments and facilitating the shift from ASA to FTD configurations. As organizations embark on their cloud adoption journey, CDO simplifies provisioning workflows for remote branches, reduces operational expenditures related to inventory management, and offers scalability for multi-cloud deployments.

    The Skybox Security Suite platform combines firewall and network device data with vulnerability and threat intelligence, prioritizing security issues in the context of your unique environment. Powerful attack vector analytics reduce response times and risks, bringing firewall, vulnerability and threat management processes for complex networks under control.

    Firewall Assurance brings all firewalls into one normalized view, continuously monitoring policy compliance, optimizing firewall rulesets and finding attack vectors that others miss. Skybox covers the most comprehensive list of firewall vendors, complex rulesets, even virtual and cloud-based firewalls. With proven scalability in 1,500+ firewall deployments, Firewall Assurance keeps rules optimized and ensures changes don’t introduce new risk. 

    Gain total visibility of the vulnerabilities in your attack surface without waiting for a scan. Leverage Skybox Research Lab's vulnerability and threat intelligence, and automatically correlate it to your unique environment. With network modeling and advanced simulations, pinpoint exposed vulnerabilities and other attack vectors. And use context to prioritize vulnerabilities in terms of actual risk and respond to threats with accuracy and efficiency.

    For more information or to view a demo, visit www.skyboxsecurity.com.

    Sample Customers
    Insurance Company of British Columbia, Shawmut
    ADP, Blue Cross Blue Shield, BT, USAID, Delta Dental, EDF Energy, EMC, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson
    Top Industries
    REVIEWERS
    Manufacturing Company43%
    University14%
    Consumer Goods Company14%
    Healthcare Company14%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Computer Software Company44%
    Manufacturing Company7%
    Financial Services Firm5%
    Government5%
    REVIEWERS
    Financial Services Firm16%
    Outsourcing Company16%
    Comms Service Provider16%
    Insurance Company11%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Financial Services Firm17%
    Computer Software Company17%
    Manufacturing Company9%
    Government6%
    Company Size
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business43%
    Midsize Enterprise21%
    Large Enterprise36%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business11%
    Midsize Enterprise5%
    Large Enterprise83%
    REVIEWERS
    Small Business50%
    Midsize Enterprise10%
    Large Enterprise40%
    VISITORS READING REVIEWS
    Small Business19%
    Midsize Enterprise12%
    Large Enterprise68%
    Buyer's Guide
    Firewall Security Management
    April 2024
    Find out what your peers are saying about AlgoSec, Tufin, Palo Alto Networks and others in Firewall Security Management. Updated: April 2024.
    768,578 professionals have used our research since 2012.

    Cisco Defense Orchestrator is ranked 14th in Firewall Security Management while Skybox Security Suite is ranked 6th in Firewall Security Management with 34 reviews. Cisco Defense Orchestrator is rated 8.2, while Skybox Security Suite is rated 7.8. The top reviewer of Cisco Defense Orchestrator writes "Provides visibility into entire infrastructure and bulk changes save time and resources". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Skybox Security Suite writes "Efficient in vulnerability management, stable and easy to use ". Cisco Defense Orchestrator is most compared with AlgoSec, Palo Alto Networks Panorama, Tufin Orchestration Suite, Azure Firewall Manager and Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, whereas Skybox Security Suite is most compared with AlgoSec, Tufin Orchestration Suite, FireMon Security Manager, Palo Alto Networks Panorama and RedSeal.

    See our list of best Firewall Security Management vendors.

    We monitor all Firewall Security Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.