My main use case for Cisco Secure Firewall is just control between outer boundary and inner boundaries.
The feature I appreciate the most about Cisco Secure Firewall is the FMC platform where it merges multiple firewalls into one management plane. An example of how features of Cisco Secure Firewall have benefited my organization is through easy deployment of access policies across a long array of devices. I assess Cisco Secure Firewall's ability to unify policies across my environment as a single pane of glass with the FMC. If I need to look up a policy or implement something, I just type in the name of the policy I made to see what objects apply to our policy. I appreciate that part.
Cisco Secure Firewall could be improved in several ways. I've noticed in different versions that some versions had packet caps and some didn't. The user interface could be improved, and maintaining a consistent version across the board would be beneficial. Ease-of-use is important, with the user-based interface and keeping plain language. In the next release of Cisco Secure Firewall, it should include features that utilize AI to speak plain language. For example, it could respond to, 'Hey, I want to do this thing,' and guide users accordingly. I know AI feedback is a hot topic, but I wonder how reliant that is on external connectivity. If it can work in an air-gap network, that would be significant.
I have been using Cisco Secure Firewall for at least a few years, maybe three or four years.
I evaluate the stability and reliability of Cisco Secure Firewall as quite strong since it's probably one of the few things that hasn't crashed on us. While I haven't experienced crashes with Cisco Secure Firewall, most of our issues don't come from it unless it's something we've blocked, preventing users from accessing areas. It's never been a device problem or related to the technical implementation of things.
I think Cisco Secure Firewall scales effectively with the growing needs of my organization because we work in boundary-level areas. Most of our users connect on the inside of the boundary and then egress out, making it easy for us to scale out to support thousands of users as long as they connect to that inner part.
My evaluation of customer service and technical support for Cisco is positive. TAC cases generally serve as a good option for anything we've had problems with Cisco devices, and the process is good. On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Cisco's customer service a 10.
Prior to adopting Cisco Secure Firewall, I was using Fortinet. The factor that led me to consider changing from Fortinet was its vulnerability problems. We scrapped that solution.
My experience with the deployment of Cisco Secure Firewall is pretty good.
Before selecting Cisco Secure Firewall, I considered a couple of other platforms, including some Palo Altos, for separate requirements that Cisco doesn't meet.
My experience with Cisco Secure Firewall is positive. I appreciate it because it has always been easy for me as an individual to navigate and manage anything Cisco-related.
My impression of the visibility and control capabilities of Cisco Secure Firewall in managing encrypted traffic is somewhat mixed. I have a concern about the GRE and the Snort inspection. Sometimes Snort would break GRE traffic when trying to tunnel from the outside in. Making a policy to allow GRE always breaks. But other than that, it's been straightforward.
This unified policy management is important to my organization because different functions in a network can apply to many other users. It allows us to see that from one pane of glass, and I can easily search it up by name or IP address. I use Cisco SecureX with Cisco Secure Firewall, mainly Firepower, and we integrate them in FMC.
The integration of Cisco SecureX with Cisco Secure Firewall doesn't really affect dwell time for my team. It just gives us the ability to filter out unwanted things from the outside. We don't use much cloud functionality, so I can't comment on the impact of the cloud-delivered firewall on our organization's security posture.
My evaluation of Cisco Secure Firewall in helping my organization implement a zero-trust security model is that we don't really use it for firewalls. We work with DNA center stuff and fabric-enabled technologies. We use the zero-trust model with 802.1X, but that's more unfirewall-related.
The process of using Cisco Secure Firewall is straightforward; you install it and decide whether to block or allow protocols. It's simple and easy. The language part makes it easy since a Cisco box is a Cisco box, and opening up TAC cases on the Cisco portal is straightforward.
My advice to other organizations considering Cisco Secure Firewall is to understand how a firewall works, know your network, and what you want to block and allow. Cisco has been good with their support level, so as long as they know Cisco, they should be fine. I rate Cisco Secure Firewall 10 out of 10.