Cisco PIX family firewalls and Cisco ASA 5500 Series adaptive security appliances combine next-generation firewall, intrusion protection, and Virtual Private Network features in an economical, one-box format. Both product series offer powerful client and program policy enforcement, mutlivector assault defense, and safe connectivity services. The enhanced knowledge sharing of integrated security services in a stand-alone platform provides customers deploying these integrated solutions the advanced of enhanced protection, reduced cost of ownership, and smaller maintenance expense.

PIX firewalls and the ASA 5500 Series join Cisco IOS Firewall, the Firewall Services Module for Cisco Catalyst 6500 Series switches, and 7600 family routers as components of Cisco's versatile, integrated firewall product. Engineered with a scalable, building-block approach, every offering is designed with a particular array of options to deliver better protection to different network environments. These products can be independently installed to secure certain areas of the network environment, or can be combined for a layered, protection-in-depth approach following the architecture best practices outlined in the Cisco SAFE framework. Completing the modular firewall solutions, Cisco provides a comprehensive security management product portfolio, ranging from Cisco security device and IOS Software security features and embedded appliance managers, to standalone management programs, helping to ensure that businesses can effectively manage their Cisco protection infrastructure investments.

Cisco PIX Firewalls
The top-selling Cisco PIX Security Appliance Series deliver robust user and application policy enforcement, multi-source invasion protection, and safe connectivity features in affordable, simple-to-configure modules. These purpose-built appliances provide a wealth of integrated protection and networking capabilities including state-of-the=art process-aware firewall features, market-leading Voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia protection, reliable site-to-site and remote-connectivity IPSec Virtual Private Network connectivity, high availability, intelligent networking features, and flexible administration solutions. The PIX Security Appliance Series family spans small plug-and-go desktop units for small and at home offices to stackable gigabit appliances with superior investment protection for enterprise and ISP environments, Cisco PIX firewall appliances provide high levels of security, speed, and availability for networks of any size.

Cisco PIX firewalls offer a wealth of setup, tracking, and troubleshooting options, providing IT managers the flexibility to utilize the techniques that best meet their needs. Administrative options cover the gamut from common, policy-based administration tools to integrated Web-accessible administration to compatibility with remote-tracking standards such as Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) and syslog. The integrated Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) system provides a powerful Web-accessible management platform that significantly streamlines the installation, ongoing configuration, and tracking of a specific Cisco PIX firewall without requiring any additional software other than an ordinary browser and Java plug-in to be running on a manager's computer. Administrators can furthermore remotely configure, track, and analyze PIX security appliances using a command-line interface. Secure command-line interface (CLI) access is available using several methods, including Secure Shell (SSHv2) Protocol, Telnet over IP Security (IPSec), and out-of-band via a console port. Cisco PIX firewall appliances also have robust automatic-update capabilities, a set of advanced protected remote-administration services that ensure security settings and software images are always current. In addition, Cisco PIX firewall appliances are supported by a number of configuration and monitoring utilities offered by Cisco Architecture for Voice, Video and Integrated Data partners.

Cisco ASA Firewalls
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewalls are purpose-built devices that bring together advanced, best-of-breed protection and Virtual Private Network services with a new generation, flexible design. The end product is a powerful, multifunction network security appliance better suited to protect small and midsize company and enterprise networks and, at the same time, reduce the total installation and operations costs associated with this unprecedented degree of protection.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewalls provide strong application security via smart, application-aware inspection processes that examine network flows at Layers 4-7. The result is a more secure environment covering Web, voice, and mobile wireless services. To defend networks from application-layer assaults and to offer organizations greater policing of the programs and protocols utilized in their networks, these inspection engines integrate broad application and protocol knowledge and rely on security enforcement solutions such as anomaly sensing and state tracking. Also included are attack detection and remediation techniques including application/protocol command filters and URL deobfuscation. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances firewall inspection engines also provide control over instant messaging and tunneling applications, enabling businesses to enforce usage policies and conserve network bandwidth for important business applications.

While increasing network security, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) firewalls also decrease deployment and operational expenses. By offering broad Virtual Private Network and security functions, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewall can be a single device for a multitude of uses, enabling product commonality. The Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series firewall can be used as a consolidated threat-prevention device at a central location by leveraging its access control, application inspection, and worm, virus, and other malware mitigation capabilities. The Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances firewall can also be used as a dedicated remote connectivity device using its Virtual Private Network features. Alternatively, the Cisco ASA firewall serves capably in the network interior for interdepartmental connectivity management and to guard against malicious assaults internal workers may inadvertently introduce into the network. In small company and branch office environments, the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances firewall serves as a total solution platform offering complete intrusion prevention and Virtual Private Network functionality while suiting the cost structure and operational models of these situations. This versatile one-device, multiple-use design reduces the number of platforms that need to be installed and maintained while providing a standard operating and administrative environment throughout all those deployments. This approach streamlines the training of configuration, monitoring, support, and security staff. To further minimize operations costs, Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances firewalls are also highly network conscious, allowing them to insert gracefully into the environment without interfering with legitimate data flow and applications.

How Progent Can Help You with Cisco Firewalls
Cisco PIX family security appliances and ASA Series firewalls provide an array of setup, tracking, and analysis options that offer you the ability to deploy these security appliances to match your company's requirements. Progent's CISA certified network security experts can help you to develop a security strategy that makes sense for your business and can set up your security appliance to support your security strategy. Progent's CISA-qualified information security audit professionals and GIAC-certified network security experts can assess the strength of your existing firewall deployment and help determine the security of your entire IT environment. Progent also knows how to analyze your firewall either remotely or in person, and can train your in-house IT maintenance group to configure and maintain your firewalls.

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