Cisco PIX security appliances and ASA Series adaptive security appliances integrate comprehensive firewall, intrusion defense, and Virtual Private Network technologies in a cost-effective, one-cabinet format. Both device series deliver powerful user and program policy enforcement, mutlivector assault defense, and secure connectivity services. The enhanced intelligence sharing of integrated protection features in a stand-alone platform offers users deploying these integrated firewalls the benefits of enhanced security, lower COI, and smaller maintenance costs.

PIX security appliances and the ASA 5500 product line combine with Cisco IOS Firewall, the Firewall Services Module (FWSM) for Cisco Catalyst 6500 switches, and 7600 family routers as parts of Cisco's flexible, self-contained firewall line. Engineered with an expandable, building-block approach, every offering is designed with a particular feature set to deliver more efficient security to a variety of networking environments. These solutions can be individually deployed to secure certain facets of the network infrastructure, or can be grouped for a systematic, protection-in-depth strategy based on the design best practices outlined in Cisco's SAFE Blueprint. Completing the integrated firewall solutions, Cisco provides a complete security management offering, ranging from Cisco security appliance and Cisco IOS Software security components and built-in device controllers, to standalone management programs, moving to ensure that businesses can effectively manage their Cisco security infrastructure investments.

Cisco PIX Firewalls
The top-selling PIX Security Appliance Series offer robust policy support, multi-source invasion protection, and safe connectivity features in affordable, out-of-the-box solutions. These specialized appliances offer a broad range of integrated security and connectivity capabilities such as state-of-the=art application-aware firewall features, market-leading Voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia protection, robust multi-location and remote-access IP Security Virtual Private Network (VPN) connectivity, high availability, intelligent networking features, and versatile management options. The Cisco PIX Security Appliance Series family ranges from small plug-and-play appliances for small offices or home offices to stackable gigabit products with superior investment protection for enterprise and ISP customers, PIX firewalls deliver high levels of security, performance, and availability for network environments of any size.

PIX firewalls deliver a wealth of configuration, tracking, and analysis options, giving businesses the versatility to use the techniques that best match their needs. Administrative solutions range from common, policy-based administration utilities to integrated Web-accessible administration to support for remote-tracking protocols such as Simple Network Management Protocol and syslog. The integrated Adaptive Security Device Manager interface provides a world-class Web-accessible management platform that significantly simplifies the deployment, ongoing modification, and tracking of a specific Cisco PIX firewall appliance without requiring any additional utility other than an ordinary Web browser and Java applet to be installed on a manager's computer. IT managers can also remotely set up, track, and analyze PIX firewall appliances via a CLI interface. Protected command-line interface (CLI) access is available using a number of techniques, such as Secure Shell (SSHv2) Protocol, Telnet over IP Security, and out-of-band through a console port. PIX firewalls also have robust automatic-update features, a set of revolutionary protected remote-administration options that ensure security configurations and software images are kept current. Also, Cisco PIX firewall appliances are compatible with a number of configuration and monitoring tools offered by Cisco AVVID partners.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series Firewalls
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) Firewalls are specially engineered devices that incorporate advanced, industry-leading security and VPN services plus an innovative, adaptive design. The result is a robust, versatile network security solution better suited to protect small and medium business and enterprise networks and, at the same time, reduce the overall installation and operations costs of this unprecedented level of protection.

Cisco ASA firewalls provide a high-level of application protection through intelligent, application-aware inspection processes that analyze network flows at Layers 4-7. This produces a safer network covering Web, voice, and 3G-mobile wireless access. To defend environments from application-layer attacks and to give businesses more control over the applications and protocols used in their environments, these inspection engines integrate extensive application and protocol knowledgebases and rely on protection enforcement technologies such as anomaly detection and application and protocol state tracking. Also incorporated are attack sensing and mitigation techniques such as application and protocol command filtering and content verification. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewall inspection engines also deliver control over instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing, enabling organizations to enforce usage policies and free up bandwidth for important business applications.

At the same time as improving network security, Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewalls also lower deployment and support expenses. By providing broad VPN and security services, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewall can be a the only platform for many uses, enabling product commonality. The Cisco ASA firewall can be deployed as a consolidated threat-prevention device at the datacenter by leveraging its access control, application inspection, and malware remediation technologies. The Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewall can also be used as a dedicated remote connectivity device utilizing its VPN features. As another option, the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewall performs capably inside the network for inter-office access control and to defend against malware internal workers might inadvertently introduce into the network. In small business and branch office environments, the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances firewall acts as an all-in-one device providing comprehensive threat defense and VPN functionality while suiting the budgets and operational demands of such deployments. This versatile one-platform, many-solution approach lowers the amount of devices that need to be deployed and managed while offering a standard functional and administrative environment throughout all deployments. This approach simplifies the education of setup, tracking, troubleshooting, and protection staff. To further reduce operations costs, Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewalls are also exceptionally network aware, enabling them to insert seamlessly into the network without disrupting authorized traffic and applications.

How Progent Can Help You with Cisco Firewalls
Cisco's PIX family firewalls and ASA Series adaptive security appliances provide a wealth of configuration, monitoring, and analysis options that offer you the ability to deploy these firewalls to match your business needs. Progent's CISM and CISA certified security professionals can assist you to develop a security policy that makes sense for your environment and can set up your security appliance to enforce your security policy. Progent's CISA-qualified information security auditing experts and GIAC-qualified system security experts can assess the effectiveness of your existing firewall deployment and audit the security of your entire IS environment. Progent can also troubleshoot your security appliances either remotely or in person, and can train your existing IT support staff to set up and support your security appliances.

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