Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

Score8.4 out of 10

46 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center (formerly Firepower Management Center) are a firewall policy and intrusion detection appliance management system, providing an administrative nerve center for managing critical Cisco network security solutions. It provides complete and unified management over firewalls, application control, intrusion prevention, URL filtering, and advanced malware protection. Easily go from managing a firewall to controlling applications to investigating and remediating malware outbreaks.

Categories & Use Cases

Firewall Security Management

Firewall Rule Cleanup
Ability to detect and cleanup rules that are either partially or completely unused, expired or shadowed
Category average: 8.9
Attack Path Simulation Testing
Simulation of potential attack paths to expose network exposure
Category average: 7.9
Policy planning and rule management
Monitor the effectiveness of network security infrastructure
Category average: 8.9

Device Discovery
Ability to automatically find all devices connected to the network
Category average: 8.2
Policy Compliance Auditing
Automatic identification of gaps in compliance, remediation, and generation of compliance reports for auditors
Category average: 8.2
Automated Policy Orchestration
Automatically brings together all security controls in one place, automates changes and collapses risks
Category average: 7.8

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Secure Firewall Management [Center (formerly Firepower Management Center)] to protect our entire organization and its IT assets. We also have firewalls managed by [Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center] that protect our IOT/OT infrastructure both ways. This is our enterprise solution to protect against ransomware attacks (partially), protect from external attacks, lock down internal systems and services, and ensure the best network security for our global network operations. Once getting used to the interface its pretty straight forward to use and navigate. Cisco has a decent (although google searches quite often is as good or better) knowledgebase on how-to's and best practices. We chose FMC as our first line of defense due to Cisco' s brand, its strong networking and security background, and its extensive product line to meet any business need.

Pros

Ease of administration
Latest security updates with easy ability to implement with little to no user impact
Cutting edge functionality to meet any business need and its ability to add features and functions after its already on the market

Cons

Licensing is difficult to navigate on purchase
Renewal licensing and support isn't all that easy to do and has its issues
The lowest end firewalls on the market seem to be EOL sooner than documented and requires earlier upgrading to ensure FMC itself can be kept current for security reasons. if you buy anything but the cheapest model firewalls this is not a problem
Implementing some functionality is more complex than it should be and believe Cisco could do better in this regard to the software

Return on Investment

Everyday Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center proves its worth. With the ever changing ransomware and hacking tools out there it continues to prove it can protect our network and IT assets
With its ease of use admin portal its easy on first log in to see what is going on and things you should look at and remediate
With its easy update process for itself and remote firewalls it enables us admins to have more personal time versus working after hours to apply such updates

Alternatives Considered

Barracuda CloudGen Firewall (formerly NG Firewalls), Checkpoint Halo and Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Firewalls - PA Series

Other Software Used

Cisco Prime LAN Management Solution, Cisco Secure Email (formerly Cisco Email Security), Cisco Wide Area Application Services

Usability

Daniel Sayer

Senior Infrastructure Engineer in Information Technology at Braintree District Council (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to manage multiple firewalls from a central point. We are able to check intrusions and apply configuration changes across our network using this tool. It give us visibility in real time of any malware outbreaks allowing us to respond proactively to fix and remediate.

Pros

Enforce rules anywhere
Simplifies the protection of our network
Intrusion prevention

Cons

Deployment of policies can take a long time
Switching between tabs can take some time.

Return on Investment

Reduced time to identify and fix issues
Reduced time of implementing fixes across multiple sites
Single vendor providing support

Alternatives Considered

Sophos XG Firewall

Other Software Used

Microsoft 365, Microsoft Azure Active Directory

Sunil Redekar View profile

Network Security Engineer in Information Technology at Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are using the same product on multiple customer sites to run their daily operation task. It provides unified management over firewalls. We mostly used blades like application control, intrusion prevention, URL filtering, and advanced malware protection. Built-in forensics gives a detailed analysis of malware to safely remediate with a graphical representation of all the devices the attack has infected.

Pros

Application control.
Advance malware detection.
Unified management.

Cons

Policy control.
Need to reduce complexity.
API Integration.

Return on Investment

Provides best management platform.
Real time threat management.
Analytics and logging.

Alternatives Considered

CATCheckpoint

Other Software Used

CATCheckpoint, FortiManager, FortiAnalyzer

Masud Kamal

Technical Support Engineer in Engineering at Ufone (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is [an] all management tool for multi platform cisco products and networking solutions in our organization. We have configured our networking and related security tools with this management center to keep 24/7 logs and live data monitoring to avoid any security and networking lapses. We are also using it to provide [a] virtual private network for the employees for remote access of the [organizational-specific] applications through the firewall and it has been helpful to prevent any malware and spyware attacks over the internet. Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center is also [a] great tool to implement organizational policies for the users on the network and provides complete control over data and bandwidth distribution as per backend resources. We have implemented this solution for all the employees of the organization.

Pros

Great protection and security against the multiple digital virus attacks.
Provides detailed logs to track any threat and helps to secure the network promptly.
VPN service for remote access of important organizational applications.
Best management tool for controlling data and bandwidth resources.

Cons

Logs are much populated and not easier to find any specific event.

Return on Investment

It has very advanced Firewall management tools and [is] very helpful for securing [the] network and organizational data against [malware] etc. ROI is positive.

Other Software Used

Avanan, Cleo Integration Cloud, Cisco Webex Share, Nintex RPA

Wayne Lin

Digital Strategist, Account Manager in Finance and Accounting at Golin (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For the last couple of years, we have been heavily relying on Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center to gain total visibility into our network and endpoints.

Pros

Threat management.
Control access to our network by preventing unknown endpoints automatically.
Centralizing security management in one platform.

Cons

Due to the complexity of the Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center, it was hard for us to implement it. However, we partnered with an external service provider (Deloitte Cyber Risk) during the entire process from selection, deployment, training to customization.

Return on Investment

Malware prevention.
We don't perform security management processes since Cisco SFMC helps control hosts and applications, investigate and resolve malware outbreaks.

Other Software Used

Gartner Peer Insights, Capterra, Asana, Mattermost

FireMon

Skybox Security

Palo Alto Panorama

Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center

What is Cisco Secure Firewall Management Center?

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Top Performing Features

Firewall Rule Cleanup

Attack Path Simulation Testing

Policy planning and rule management

Areas for Improvement

Device Discovery

Policy Compliance Auditing

Automated Policy Orchestration

Reviews

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Usability

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Other Software Used

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Cons

Return on Investment

Other Software Used

Related Products