­Why the Cisco ASA Firewall is a Superior Firewall

by Daniel Stockman, i-Tech Support, Inc

Cisco has made several acquisitions in the past in an attempt to fill up gaps in their portfolio, and stay a step ahead of their competition. The ASA firewalls are one exemplary product. Cisco acquired Sourcefire, a security company, in 2013 and integrated the threat protection software with their own technologies. This led to the launch of Cisco’s Adaptive Security Appliances and FirePower firewalls, or as they are more commonly known, ASA firewalls.

Supporting a maximum number of 5000 connections in 1 second,

The Cisco ASA Firewall 5506-X is an effective option for small and medium sized businesses.

We’ll first walk you through the primary features of the offered series, and then highlight some advantages.

Primary Features

• A real intrusion prevention system (IPS) that includes contextual awareness
• Advanced threat protection which is based on using global threat intelligence for protection against zero day threats
• Rapid threat containment that proactively mitigates risks; if a threat is detected, additional security policies are applied to other network devices for increased protection

Product Line

The Cisco ASA firewall product line spans over models that vary in performance, connectivity, and features.

Cisco ASA 5506-X

These are entry level products, featuring 8 1GbE interfaces, which can be used to connect various network zones. If the base is used with layer 7 application control, IPS throughput of 125 Mbps can be achieved.

Supporting a maximum number of 5000 connections in 1 second, ASA 5506-X is an effective option for small and medium sized businesses.

Cisco ASA 5545-X

This series features the mid level products of the firewall line.  Like the ASA 5506-X series, 8 1 GbE interfaces are included. Expansion slots are provided for 6 additional ports or small form factor (SFF) pluggable interfaces. The maximum throughput achieved is 1 GB if Layer app control and IPS are enabled.

The ASA 5545-X series is suitable for large offices and huge campus networks.

Cisco ASA 5585-X

This series includes high end ASA firewall products, which have been designed for corporate data centers and large networks. Compared to other competitors, the form factor is smaller but the two rack unit performs impressively.  One rack hosts the firewall and the inspection model, while the other rack contains the FirePower module. ASA 5585-X has a maximum throughput of 10 Gbps, and is capable of processing 160,000 new connections in a single second. ASA 5585-X model includes 16 copper Ethernet interfaces and 2 SFP+ interfaces of 10 Gbps; an alternate option is 12 copper Ethernet interfaces and 4 SFP+ interfaces of 10 Gbps. A maximum of 16 ASA 5585-X firewalls can be combined and made to act a single unit.

Benefits

• Cisco ASA firewalls offer superior protection from threats through CSC, IPS and the like.
• TCO is reduced because of better pricing
• The offered solutions deliver high performance levels, and can be scaled to achieve 10+ Gbps
• New applications can easily be deployed over secured layers.
• Access to business resources is controlled through identity based access, which can be integrated with other services such as LDAP and Microsoft Active Directory
• IT resources are freed up, and spyware cleanup costs are reduced due to more effective prevention

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