We're an MSP. We implement it for customers, and we also use it in our organization.
Umbrella DNS Security Essentials
Cisco Systems, Inc.External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
“Best Software for Malware protection “
Best platform for data storage
cisco 3750c
"Cisco Umbrella best cloud security software"
It's protecting malware & phishing thept.
Cisco Umbrella help to blocked unwanted malware & thept attack.
It's working on good direction.
Awesome
Awesome Product !
Networking secured services
Set it and Forget it
Integrates easily with Meraki and gives us peace of mind knowing that our traffic is secure
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
I'm not a technical guy. From my perspective, as an executive, it gives us more peace of mind knowing that our traffic is secure. There's basically an extra layer of security for all our traffic, so our customers' data is secure, and our own data is more secure. There's just peace of mind for me.
It does a pretty good job of securing the infrastructure from end to end. We're happy with it. That's the internet gateway security that we sell. There are other competitors out there, but it's agnostic to equipment. It very easily integrates with our customer base, which is mostly Meraki. The dashboard and reporting are very easy and very transparent for our customers, so we can do a good job of explaining to them their issues, what's been mitigated, and what're the advantages. They have visibility over why they're paying for this service.
It has helped us to consolidate tools. We use most of Meraki. It's from top to bottom, so everything is in a single pane of glass.
It has definitely saved time and money. We're able to onboard a customer for a trial in minutes, so after a sales pitch call, we can onboard them the same day. That's pretty amazing.
It has improved our cybersecurity resilience to the point that we haven't had issues. In security, not having issues is very good. We're able to keep up with the threats with a partner like Cisco and make sure that the best practices are met both at the on-premise level with the firewalls and then over the cloud. When they're not in the office or when they're remotely working, everything is secure.
For our scope or type of customers, which are retail customers with many branches, as an MSP, we take care of everything related to security. It allows us to manage many customers at the same time, and it allows the customer to focus on the other aspects of their business and leave the cybersecurity and networking to us.
What is most valuable?
For us and for customers, it's the ease of integration with Meraki. It's just a couple of clicks. That allows us to deploy very fast, and it doesn't change the way a customer uses his service. It's just more secure.
What needs improvement?
For us, as an MSP, the initial licensing changes were a roadblock, and they still could be a lot clearer. Specifically, it's an honor-based licensing system. We'd like it to be more specific to our traffic or our users so that we can make sure that the customer is paying for all their licensing.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using Cisco Umbrella for about a year.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We've implemented it for maybe a thousand users.
How are customer service and support?
That's pretty good. I'd rate them a nine out of ten. More Spanish would be better for our techs. We're based in Panama.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We've tried other products and other gateways from Fortinet and Arbor. We chose Cisco Umbrella. The most important thing for us is that we're fully Meraki stack. We have thousands of deployments of Meraki, so it's very easy for us to implement. Our customers are long-time Meraki users, so they're very comfortable with the Cisco stack.
How was the initial setup?
It's deployed on the cloud, but I wasn't involved in its deployment.
What was our ROI?
We've seen an ROI with this product.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
In terms of licensing, we're not able to be extremely clear with the customer because it's based on their reporting. It's not based on the actual traffic. If they say they have 50 users but they have 80, we'll just buy for 50 users. That's something where we'd like to have more flexibility.
What other advice do I have?
Overall, I'd rate Cisco Umbrella a nine out of ten. There's always room for improvement, but it's very good.
Helped customers consolidate any tools and applications
What is our primary use case?
My company's biggest use case for Cisco Umbrella is for DNS security protection for five years. A year and a half ago, we were able to upgrade and upsell a project to Umbrella's SIG. So, now we're working on a new upgrade to new packages, including Citrix ZTNA.
What is most valuable?
In my opinion, DNS protection is basic for most customers. But the simplest way to protect web traffic is with its functionality, like SWG.
L7 and the firewall in the cloud are good features. We always hear good feedback from our customers.
What needs improvement?
I'm hoping for the conversion of Cisco ZTNA's features from Duo to Umbrella. This feature was announced at Cisco Live. I think Cisco is now on the right way to being the most competitive against some vendors like Netskope and Zscaler.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Umbrella since somewhere between 2014 and 2015.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Stability-wise, I rate the solution a nine out of ten. I only saw an impact once on its stability, and that was when I was working five years ago in the support in Johnson & Johnson environment, and Johnson uses SIP security for everything. So, one of the things was that in the bank that uses it, it was miscategorized in Cisco Umbrella. After I did investigations, I found that the problem was not in Cisco Umbrella. The problem was with the bank because they needed to split the data centers in Umbrella, and Umbrella could not recognize the object.
How are customer service and support?
Compared to the past, in my opinion, Cisco's support is better nowadays. The policies have decreased a little, in my opinion, but it still offers the best support in IT. This is common feedback from customers, including the ones that complain about Cisco's partners, but at the same time, they say its support is better than all different competitors. I rate the support an eight out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In my company, we are partnered with one of the competitors of Cisco Umbrella.
We sell Cisco since we are one of the biggest partners of Cisco in our region, Latin America. Also, I think that Umbrella is a good solution. But Cisco should have considered improving it in the last few years. For example, if you compare Cisco Umbrella against McAfee, Zscaler, or Netskope, three years ago, Umbrella had a lot of the main features for the market drive, SSE, DLP, l7 firewall, and ZTNA. So, now I think Cisco Umbrella has everything to show and be the next leader partner.
How was the initial setup?
I wasn't involved in the solution's setup phase. I do the sales in my company, and the ones responsible for deployment in my company are from another sales team. In the past, during the initial years of Cisco, I was involved in deployment.
Regarding the ease of deployment, I am 100 percent sure that it is the easiest solution. Also, I have already worked before, even in Cisco Portfolio.
What was our ROI?
My customers have seen an ROI using the solution, mainly considering the time it shows the attacks and what the threats are. Personally, I saw a presentation to suppliers with the title stating SaaS is the newest SOC's best friend, and this is a reality. I have a customer, the biggest bank in Brazil, and they adopted Cisco Umbrella's DNS Security Advantage as one of the main features in the SOC, which is integrated into the bank, which is one of the most valuable for the customer.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Cisco Umbrella now has a good price in the basic packages. When it comes to Cisco Umbrella SIG Essentials package and Cisco Umbrella Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) Advantage package, it depends on whether the project has a good price or not. For example, we are not able to choose the SWG feature without l3 and l4 firewalls. Some vendors have that possibility. So, we know this has a price, and this has value for the customer. But most of my customers that are using Umbrella SIG Essentials don't have l3 and l4 firewalls. So, this is a problem.
With the new features that are being introduced in Cisco Umbrella, I think we will have a new price list, and maybe things could change. Considering Umbrella for the SIG Advantage package and full feature competition against ZScaler or Netskope, they need to add all their packages. Usually, the SIG Advantage package has a markup price.
What other advice do I have?
When it comes to securing my customer's infrastructure from end to end so that they can detect and remediate threats, I would say that, in general, I have had a good experience. Sometimes, just enabling Cisco Umbrella POV and the fact that DNS trust is going through Cisco Umbrella is the easiest way to show and close a lot of bad traffic nowadays. Also, 80 percent of campaigns use any kind of malicious DNS infrastructure. So now, it's very, very easy to detect such traffic.
Cisco Umbrella has helped customers consolidate any tools and applications. I say this because, with Umbrella, it is very easy to see what the users are using through the internet, especially with the basic packages.
Speaking about what effect Cisco Umbrella's ability to consolidate tools or applications has, I would say that, in general, it is easy to see what Umbrella is blocking. In some cases, for example, customers who have used traditional endpoint security solutions sometimes think that they are safe because they didn't have any alerts using that. But when these customers implement Cisco Umbrella, they realize the real scenario. It has a positive impact because today, it is able to see the real traffic and the really bad things that are inside their networks.
Regarding whether Cisco Umbrella helped to improve cybersecurity, I would say that with Cisco Umbrella, it is easier to handle the incidents because they have more information that should handle the problems and improve security in general. The base, or the first layer, I think, is the way you improve resilience.
I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten. After Cisco Channel Partner program's release, I may probably rate it a ten out of ten.