Umbrella Cloud Financial Management

My main use case for Umbrella involves whitelisting and blacklisting of URLs. I want to provide feedback on Umbrella as it functions. Umbrella provides strong DNS layer security and blocks malicious domains before connections are established. We would like to whitelist or blacklist the URLs that we want to utilize on our client side. The dashboard is relatively easy to use and provides good visibility into DNS requests and security events. Integration with other Cisco security products is beneficial, and reporting and analytics could be more customizable. Policy management can become complex in larger environments with multiple user groups. Troubleshooting blocked domains sometimes requires a very deep investigation. More granular reporting and easier policy inheritance would improve administration. Roaming client protection is valuable for remote customers, and threat intelligence backed by Cisco Talos is a strong advantage.

I can provide a quick specific example of how I have used Umbrella for whitelisting or blacklisting URLs by checking in VirusTotal as well as a few of the McAfee sites, and based on that, we will blacklist or whitelist the URLs.

The best features Umbrella offers include content filtering, protection for remote users, and DNS security, malware, and phishing protection.

Out of those features, I find myself relying on DNS security the most because it is essential for my needs.

Umbrella has positively impacted my organization by ensuring that if anyone wants to access any of the URLs, the URL will be blocked. If they want to access that particular URL, it needs to be whitelisted. Umbrella will help us to block or whitelist the URL based on malicious activity.

A specific outcome that shows how Umbrella has benefited my organization is that it saved a lot of time, and before security events occur, it filters all the URLs. Whether they are malicious or phishing URLs, it will blacklist those and will not approve that.

While Umbrella provides good visibility, reporting and dashboard customization could be improved by being more flexible, especially for management and compliance reporting. When a domain is blocked, administrators sometimes need to navigate multiple logs and dashboards to identify the exact policy or rule responsible. Simplified troubleshooting would improve this experience.

More customizable reporting, simplified policy management for large environments, and enhanced troubleshooting capabilities could be included.

Regarding Umbrella's AI capabilities, its governance and security can use threat intelligence from Cisco Talos to identify malicious domains, phishing sites, and emerging threats. Machine learning and predictive analysis can be leveraged to detect newly registered or suspicious domains before they are widely known threats. For example, AI-powered investigation summarizes and explains why a domain was blocked.

Its accuracy and reliability of output are notable since it provides reliable threat detection using Cisco Talos threat intelligence, machine learning, and domain reputation analysis. In my experience, the accuracy is generally good with effective identification of malicious and phishing domains. However, there can occasionally be false positives where legitimate sites are blocked and require review or whitelisting. The platform is highly reliable for DNS layer protection, but providing more transparency into AI-driven decisions and improving the explanation of why a domain is flagged would further enhance administrative confidence.

I have been using Umbrella for eight plus years.

Umbrella is stable.

Regarding Umbrella's scalability, it is highly scalable and well-suited for organizations of different sizes from small businesses to large enterprises. Since it is a cloud-delivered service, it can support a growing number of users, devices, and locations without requiring significant on-premises infrastructure. In my experience, scaling protection to remote users and multiple sites is relatively straightforward through centralized policy management.

The customer support was great, as they would solve the issue immediately based on the priority after we raise a request.

I have not used any other solution; Umbrella is the only one I am using.

Before choosing Umbrella, we did not evaluate other options. Our client chose only Umbrella, and it has been the best option so far.

My advice for others looking into using Umbrella is to consider that it would be helpful for all clients to better whitelist and blacklist the URLs that are malicious and phishing ones, as it will add more security or a layer of security to the companies. I would rate this product a nine out of ten.

My main use case for Umbrella is DNS security, by securing end users to utilize a security DNS. I have deployed Umbrella in proxy mode, and we have two appliances in our environment. Our Active Directory gets all the DNS queries from the Umbrella appliances, and the Umbrella appliances reach DNS and Cisco Security Cloud. Our end users utilize it from the Active Directory.

The best features Umbrella offers secure the DNS queries for our environment, including servers and endpoints. What makes the security feature stand out for our servers and endpoints is that most of the DNS queries come from trusted sources. Umbrella has positively impacted my organization by providing a layer of security on the DNS level. I can share specific outcomes including improved compliance with NCA regulation that resulted from using Umbrella.

Umbrella can be improved by adding DHCP services to be a full DDI solution, as most customers today are looking for a full DDI solution. Exporting reports for all the DNS queries, including how much reached and what has been blocked, can give full visibility for the protection. Additionally, adding DDoS protection services to the DNS cloud would provide more layers of security.

I have been using Umbrella for three years.

Umbrella is stable.

Umbrella's scalability is great.

Cisco Customer Support always answers on time, which is very helpful. I would rate the customer support a nine on a scale of one to ten.

I previously used Infoblox as a different solution before switching to Umbrella.

Before using Umbrella, I did not evaluate any other options.

I would rate Umbrella an eight on a scale of one to ten. I chose that number because of the ease of deployment of Umbrella, as well as its easy use and low operational headache. My advice for others looking into using Umbrella is to make sure to deploy Umbrella appliances on-premises to utilize the proxy services. The interview was great, and I have no changes to suggest for the future.

The main use case for Umbrella is that I am using it for SASE. I am using Umbrella for blocking malicious domains before connection happens, then protecting remote and hybrid users also without forcing full VPN. I am using it for web content filtering as well. Visibility into internet traffic, lightweight client protection, and the cloud delivered secure web gateway are part of my workflow. These include HTTP inspection, file inspection, URL filtering, SaaS control, and CASB.

The speed feature of Umbrella is the most useful feature and the one I find most valuable. For BYOD users, I am using the speed feature which stands out for me.

Mostly from SWG, HTTP inspection is an advantage, file inspection is an advantage, and URL filtering is also an advantage regarding the features of Umbrella.

Umbrella has positively impacted my organization as I am getting fewer phishing and malware incidents. Users are very happy with Umbrella.

I measure those improvements by getting lower incident response, fewer endpoint cleanup, less time to investigate commodity phishing, and fewer repetitive user tickets. I am able to achieve almost net zero incidents.

User experience of Umbrella can be improved, with less backhauling traffic, better browsing performance, and fewer VPN dependency complaints.

Before Umbrella, I used a Firewall VPN which was not a full-fledged Umbrella SASE. I am seeing Umbrella for the first time. I was evaluating Palo Alto before choosing Umbrella.

I have mostly seen time saved as a return on investment. I am not investing more than 30 minutes of time every day, so you can analyze how much time we are saving.

We were evaluating Palo Alto as well for SASE, but finally, we decided to go with Cisco SASE and Cisco Umbrella because of the relationship we have.

My advice is to go ahead with Umbrella. It is a very nice product with good customer support plus a return on investment. You are investing $1 and you are getting a value of $10. People should go ahead with Umbrella. It is a very good product. Please go ahead, buy the product, and contact your Cisco account manager. They will help you, and the customer support team will assist you as well. Please try the demo. I am providing this review with an overall rating of 7.5 out of 10.

Umbrella was used on the security side to ensure that we had a secure connection for people and end users authorized to access the company infrastructure.

I used Umbrella for users in the company to help them make a connection through the VPN.

The main purpose was to provide the VPN with security to end users. The job was done properly without getting into specific or complex situations, and it replied to our expectations.

It was easy to use with no issues or specific problems. It was a good technology feature.

The security was well done. We did not encounter any specific issues with that use, and the users were not confused by using that feature or technology.

When we were upgrading the version of that technology, we did not face many difficulties. It remains easy to use, configure, and administrate.

I think eight is a good score. A ten would be the case where we would never encounter any issues, or the proactive work would be really well done without any problems. However, I think we always have problems with any technologies.

I have used Umbrella on different missions for two years.

I did not encounter any specific issues with that technology, no more than another. I was working on a support team and administration team. If I had to provide the rights for people to use Umbrella, it was my job, and I was on the support team to help people make the connection properly using it.

To my knowledge, everything went well when I was using that technology.

It handles increased demand well.

It was appreciated by my colleagues and there were no complaints from end users.

It was good as I was part of the team.

I use many different solutions. I cannot provide a complete list. Regarding VPN, we use VPNs such as GlobalProtect and different VPNs on different positions.

I cannot remember clearly because it is not very recent, but I think we had to provide licenses to users. Basically, we were using a security group to ensure that end users were allowed and had a license assigned to them.

That is not my role in the positions that I work.

The return on investment was positive.

I would rate the setup cost as eight because we can always improve anything, but eight would be fine.

The VPN would be an alternate solution.

The good advice would be to ensure not to share the credentials with anyone and to ensure that it is properly used. I would rate this review as an eight.

We have been using Umbrella for two years now. We are using Umbrella for providing DNS threat protection to our on-premises clients as well as our roaming clients. We have the same use case as we have DNS security firewall policies which have a number of feeds built into those policies that evaluate any public DNS queries initiated by an end client to determine if the query is legitimate or not. If there is a threat to that query, it will instantly block that query and safeguard the user from even reaching that website. We are using Umbrella to protect our on-premises as well as our roaming clients, as it has agent-based monitoring which can be installed on roaming clients that are not sitting in the office and can provide DNS security to users who are part of the company assets but are not in the office.

Umbrella offers superior threat intelligence that uses Cisco Talos, which is one of the largest commercial threat intelligence teams out there in public forums, and it helps to block domains associated with malware, phishing, and ransomware before a connection is even established.

The threat protection from Umbrella works very well and really stands out because they have a very deep knowledge of the cyber world and keep their database updated for the domains tagged as malicious or bad on the internet. It is about which vendor provides the more accurate database of the bad domains over the internet to protect their customers.

Umbrella offers a unified security stack that has an ITL package and integrates multiple security functions along with a secure web gateway and cloud access security broker as well, which are SaaS and all embedded in a single platform.

Umbrella has a positive impact in terms of our security layer, which prevents a user from even establishing a connection to a bad or malicious website before it can even resolve the DNS. If the query a user generates is not legitimate, Umbrella checks that query in its built-in firewall policy and blocks the traffic immediately, safeguarding the user.

After implementing Umbrella, we see a great impact on phishing emails where users are sometimes unaware that emails sent to them are from phishing websites and non-legitimate users that may look like known websites to them. We call them look-alike domains. Umbrella looks at the DNS query as soon as a user attempts to click on a ransomware or malicious website and blocks the DNS query before the user establishes a connection to that website.

Umbrella has a tier-restricted feature in the base package that lacks advanced features such as URL-level filtering or inspection and requires more expensive subscriptions. We feel that if someone has a lower budget for investing in their tool, they may be exposed to bad actors on the DNS layer, which can be highly impacting for any enterprise.

Umbrella has complexity and the cost for a small IT team could be more. Though we were not involved in the initial licensing and pricing models, it was handled directly by the customer.

Umbrella is highly stable and available with 100% availability.

Umbrella is a highly scalable product, as you can deploy as many agents as you want, and it will provide protection for all the users who are on-premises via their local DNS resolvers.

The customer support of Cisco is awesome. I can reach them anytime for any problem I am having in my environment, and they provide great support with minimum downtime for any problem I may have. I rate the customer support a ten out of ten.

We have not used any different solution before. Umbrella was the first and foremost solution that we performed a proof of concept on and implemented.

We see a great return on investment using Umbrella. We have seen an approximate ROI of around 231% over three years.

Umbrella is a high-enterprise cost product, so one should look at their budget before implementing this solution. It has tier-restricted features that users should be aware of regarding the kind of protection they would need in their environment, and it also has some remote reporting limitations that can be clarified before making a purchase decision.

We evaluated Cloudflare and OpenDNS solutions before choosing Umbrella.

Overall, Umbrella is a great product, and I have not seen any room for improvement. Whatever features I have used in Umbrella so far are outstanding, and I fully support what Umbrella offers today. Umbrella is overall a great product, and they are one of the market leaders in providing DNS security to an enterprise solution. They are doing a great job in managing their feeds and maintaining the transparency of why a domain is legitimate versus not legitimate, providing great detail to the user and administrator about whether the domain should be blocked or not. I would rate this product a ten out of ten.

Umbrella is mainly used for DNS security, and since we are in a hybrid model, we use Umbrella to protect remote users from malicious websites and for web traffic control.

Generally, Umbrella helps us protect those remote users by working on an agent-based system, and we install it on end-user computers. Once we install the agent, all the traffic from the computer routes through DNS Umbrella. Therefore, everyone is protected, whether in the office or at home. We create specific rules for what traffic to allow and what to block. Generally, we allow only productivity and legitimate traffic and block all malicious content and unwanted traffic.

Also, for particular features that are hosted locally, we can add those as our internal domains to resolve them quickly and have no issues in the future.

The best features Umbrella offers are web DNS filtering, website filtering, and it has better insight and visibility of what applications users are working on. It gives an insight and a list of applications being used by the users, and it also provides the category of the applications. For example, if they are using a VPN, it shows the VPN category. If it is any document sharing, it shows the document sharing. Based on that category rating, we can block the sites and applications.

We use these insights for a weekly review on those application insights, so we will be blocking unproductive or malicious content or document-sharing websites that people are using. Based on those weekly reviews, we will be blocking the categories.

Umbrella has positively impacted our organization by blocking some of the traffic, including some of the domains that were usually being generated. We saw 10 to 15 of the domains were malicious, and we have blocked them immediately. We have also correlated the web logs with our Sophos XDR solution, which really helped.

Umbrella can be improved because whenever a VPN connection is established, Umbrella may or may not work properly, and in this case, we face a challenge. They have to improve this part.

If they have a dedicated feature where, even after connecting to a VPN, the Umbrella roaming client should be online and it should be able to detect and follow whatever policy is applied, that would make for no confusion, and we can prepare a whitelisting after connecting to the VPN.

We have been using Umbrella for about three years now.

That was the main challenge Umbrella helped us overcome for remote users, and it works fine. Our review rating for this product is 8.

My main use case for Umbrella is DNS filtering, traffic filtering, and security for our users.

I use Umbrella mainly for all our users to make sure that any kind of traffic that's malicious is blocked and that we can maintain confidential information without risk of hacking.

The best features Umbrella offers include proper filtration, it keeps our users safe, DNS filtering, filtering bad websites, and creating protection for users.

When I talk about DNS filtering and protection, I find the software overall especially helpful for my team.

Umbrella has positively impacted my organization by allowing our IT team to know that our users and our remote locations are having safe traffic and lowering the risk of malicious active actions and people going to the wrong websites, giving us ease of mind.

Umbrella can be improved with easier migration and easier deployment, as we had to get some really specialized users in to deploy the software.

I have been using Umbrella for over four years across multiple organizations.

Umbrella is stable.

Its scalability is good, as it was able to be scaled to our whole organization from the get-go.

I find the customer support to be pretty good.

Regarding return on investment, I cannot share that specifically as the security incidents are all confidential, but we have had less of them since this was deployed.

Before choosing Umbrella, I did not really evaluate other options as Cisco was the standard, and we kind of went towards that fully.

This piece of mind or reduction in risk has translated into fewer security incidents for my team.

I find the experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing to definitely be expensive; setup was an expensive product to deploy, but worth it.

On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Umbrella an eight because the deployment and the ease of use can always be improved, but the actual product itself is pretty well done.

My advice to others looking into using Umbrella is to make sure it is for you before spending the money, as it is not cheap; it does give good results, but it is not for every use case. I give Umbrella an overall review rating of eight.