Cisco Network Consulting Firm

Cisco is a perennial front-runner in delivering cutting-edge firewall appliances for the broadest possible range of environments. Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls provide an advanced cybersecurity solution that marshals dedicated hardware, cloud services, and machine learning to block, identify, and respond to cyber attacks automatically. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE-certified firewall experts can assist your organization to design and execute an efficient migration to Cisco Firepower firewalls from Cisco's legacy ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, or PIX appliances and help you integrate Firepower firewalls with Cisco's subscription-based security services to create and centrally manage network ecosystems that span branch offices, data centers, private clouds and public clouds. Progent can also help you to manage and debug legacy Cisco firewalls. Progent's certified network security experts can assist you with policy creation and tuning driven by leading best practices in order to build a consistent and effective cybersecurity posture that applies to all your endpoints anywhere.

Cisco's Firepower NGFW Firewalls
Cisco's Firepower NGFWs Firewalls provide a major performance boost compared to Cisco's popular ASA 5500-X security appliances and offer unified management of advanced cybersecurity features like application visibility and control, next-generation intrusion protection with risk prioritization, advanced malware protection (AMP), distributed denial of service (DDoS) mitigation, and multi-node sandboxing. For details about Cisco's Firepower portfolio of NGFWs Firewalls, visit Cisco Firepower firewalls integration experts.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X and Legacy Firewalls
Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500, and PIX 500 firewall appliances provide integrated firewall, IPsec VPN, and IPS capabilities in compact single-box packages, delivering a broad array of features to match the security and compliance requirements of companies from small and mid-size businesses to enterprises and ISPs. Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX firewall appliances enable IT security staffs to defend their network perimeter and provide safe offsite and mobile connectivity while utilizing advanced administration mechanisms based on Cisco's world-class firewall products.

Cisco's ASA 5500 and PIX 500 firewall appliances have reached end-of-life (EOL) status but are still widely used in small and mid-size organizations and in some larger networks. The ASA 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls deliver substantially more value and have supplanted the ASA 5500 and PIX 500 families of firewalls for new installations. However, Cisco's legacy firewall appliances, if properly maintained, continue to offer a high degree of security by providing a variety of features including stateful firewall, VPN, and IPS.

Following Cisco's purchase of Sourcefire, the whole line of Cisco ASA 5500-X devices can be configured to support Firepower Services, based on Sourcefire's Snort product, which is the world's most deployed network intrusion protection system (IPS). Firepower services bring powerful new features including advanced malware protection (AMP), URL filtering, dynamic threat analytics, and security automation.

Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified infrastructure consultants can help your organization to support and troubleshoot older ASA 5500 and PIX 500 firewalls and can also assist you to plan and carry out a smooth upgrade to Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series firewalls with Firepower. Progent can also assist you to design, integrate, optimize, manage and debug new firewall solutions built on Cisco's current ASA 5500-X models with Firepower. Progent can also help your organization to migrate from your Cisco ASA 5500-X deployment to Cisco's latest Firepower Next Generation Firewalls.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series Firewalls
Cisco's extensive line of ASA 5500-X security appliances features an improved replacement for every rack-mountable model in the previous ASA 5500 line of firewalls. Each ASA 5500-X model targets the identical environment as the associated earlier models, which offers small and midsize businesses ample choice for picking a firewall that meets their security needs and IT budgets. All ASA 5500-X firewalls are based on Cisco's tested stateful-inspection firewall technology and all incorporate 64-bit hardware with multicore CPUs and are capable of running Cisco's powerful security services. All devices in Cisco's ASA 5500-X family provide consistent protection across any mix of physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

For more information about ASA 5500-X firewalls, Firepower services, and Progent's consulting for ASA 5500-X firewalls, see Cisco Firepower integration and troubleshooting consulting

Cisco's Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X Firewalls
Cisco ASA 5500-X firewalls accept either software or hardware modules that enable Cisco's Firepower Services, which offer layered protection against multi-vector attacks. Firepower Services are based on technology acquired by Cisco from Sourcefire. Key features of Firepower Services for ASA security appliances include:

• Multi-layer protection against both familiar and zero-day threats
• Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection that uses big data techniques to find and mitigate intrusions
• Cisco's Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System that performs contextual analysis that looks at users, infrastructure, apps, and content to detect attacks that incorporate multiple vectors
• High-resolution Application Visibility and Control (AVC that is aware of thousands of applications and can automatically launch standard and customized IPS policies depending on the severity of threats

Smaller deployments of Cisco ASA firewalls can be efficiently administered via Cisco's on-box Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) Adaptive Security Device Manager, a web tool which is provided with all ASA 5500-X models. ASDM includes a simple web dashboard for deploying, managing, and debugging ASA 5500-X firewalls and modules.

For multi-device and multi-site environments, ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower Services can be administered with Cisco's Firepower Management Center, available as one or more physical or virtual appliances. Cisco's Firepower Management Center provides unified firewall management, Application Visibility and Control, advanced IPS, URL filtering, and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP). Because of frequent rebranding after Cisco's acquisition of Sourcefire Defense Center, Firepower Management Center has been delivered under several names including Cisco Defense Center, Cisco Firesight Defense Center, and FireSIGHT Management Center.

Firepower Management Center offers capabilities unavailable with Cisco's on-box Adaptive Security Device Manager utility. Extra features include greater context awareness, Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) with mitigation for client devices, a console that provides dynamic network visualization, automated policy tuning driven by impact evaluation of threats, comprehensive IPS, custom application discovery for Application Visibility and Control, customized health notifications, improved reporting features, and application interfaces for host input and database access. Hardware-dependent features like clustering, stacking, switching, routing, VPN, and NAT must be managed using the on-box ASDM or the ASA 5500-X command line interface.

Cisco ASA 5500 Family of Adaptive Security Appliances
Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewalls build on engineering behind the Cisco PIX 500 firewall, the Cisco IPS 4200 Series sensor, and the VPN 3000 model concentrator. These technologies enable the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall family to deliver a platform that stops the widest range of attacks. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewalls provide program security, local containment and control, and clean VPN functionality across Cisco's product portfolio. This broad scope of security allows defense of any network segment, which includes the most common attack vectors like remote locations, locally-attached internal users, and off-site access VPNs.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series firewalls provide robust application security via smart, application-aware inspection processes that examine traffic at Layers 4-7. This results in a better protected network covering Web, voice, and mobile wireless access. To defend networks against application-layer assaults and to provide stronger policing of the programs and protocols utilized in their environments, Cisco's inspection engines integrate broad application and protocol knowledgebases and rely on security enforcement solutions such as anomaly detection and state tracking. Also included are assault detection and mitigation techniques such as application and protocol command filters and content verification. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series firewall inspection engines also deliver control over IM and tunneling applications, allowing businesses to enforce usage policies and free up network bandwidth for crucial business processes.

For more information about Progent's support services for Cisco's ASA 5500 firewalls, go to Cisco ASA 5500 firewalls integration and debugging services.

PIX Security Appliance Series
Built upon a tested, purpose-built operating system that offers a wealth of protection features, PIX security appliances provide a high level of security and have earned Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 status and ICSA Labs Firewall and IP Security (IPsec) qualification. Cisco PIX firewalls provide protection for a wide range of VoIP and additional multimedia standards including H.323 Version 4, SIP, Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), RTSP, and Media Gateway Control Protocol, helping organizations to protect deployments of a broad array of current and next-generation VoIP and multimedia applications.

IT managers can furthermore remotely set up, monitor, and troubleshoot PIX firewall appliances using a command-line interface (CLI). Safe command-line interface (CLI) access is available through several methods including SSHv2 Protocol, Telnet through IPsec, and out-of-band through a console port. PIX firewalls also include dependable auto-update features, a collection of revolutionary protected remote-administration services that ensure firewall configurations and software images are kept current.

For additional information about Progent's support services for PIX security appliances, see PIX 500 firewalls configuration and troubleshooting support.

Progent's Migration Consulting Services for Cisco Firewalls
Since Cisco has ceased offering the PIX and ASA 5500 product lines, many businesses are uncomfortable with depending on a key infrastructure mechanism that may stop being supported by Cisco. Cisco ASA 5500-X and Firepower Series security appliances have the benefit of being new products and also bring a number of functions and budgetary advantages in comparison to PIX devices. These advantages include substantially higher throughput, optional Secure Sockets Layer tunneling support, and an expandable design that protects your investment by allowing you to self-install more security services when and if you need them. Progent's Cisco certified experts can help your company to assess the strategic value of for moving from PIX or ASA 5500 security appliances, design a migration plan that allows for a quick and non-disruptive changeover, assist you to configure new ASA 5500-x Series or Firepower Series firewalls, and provide online, consulting, and technical support services.

Other Ways Progent Can Help You with Cisco ASA and PIX Security Appliances
Cisco's Firepower Series, ASA Series, and PIX security appliances provide a wealth of setup, tracking, and troubleshooting options which offer you the ability to set up these security appliances to align optimally with your business needs. Progent's CCIE certified network professionals can help you to build an efficient infrastructure that includes Cisco security appliances and that provides advanced security, fault tolerance, performance, and manageability. Progent's CISA and CISM-certified information security engineers can assist your business to create a security policy appropriate for your environment and can configure your firewall to enforce your security strategy. Progent's risk evaluation engineers can evaluate the strength of your existing firewall deployment and audit the security of your entire information system environment. Progent's Technical Response Center (TRC) can provide urgent online technical support for Cisco technology and offer quick access to a Cisco network engineer.

To see more details about Progent's professional support for Cisco networking products, pick a subject:

• Overview of Progent's Cisco Network Support
• Fast Remote Help from a Cisco CCIE Engineer
• Cisco Routers Consulting Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Network Design Services
• Aironet Wireless APs Engineering Services
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi Access Points Consulting Support
• Cisco Catalyst 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6/6E Access Points Planning, Deployment and Debugging Expertise
• Cisco Wireless Controllers Consulting
• Meraki Wireless APs Engineering Services
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Configuration and Technical Support
• Cisco VoIP Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Consulting Services and Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber and Management Services
• Catalyst Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Cisco Nexus Switches Deployment Services
• Meraki MS Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Cisco VPN and Security Engineering Services
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for Teleworkers
• Design and Support for Cisco-powered Datacenters and Colocation Centers
• Data Center Optimization Services for ISPs
• Unified Cloud-based and Hybrid Management Strategies for Cisco-based Infrastructure

Integration of Cisco and Third-party Firewall Technology
Progent offers expertise in firewall and VPN products from all major vendors and can help you integrate Cisco technology with additional security solutions to help you build a cost-effective network infrastructure that provides a level of security and flexibility appropriate for your business. Third-party firewall and VPN support services available from Progent include:

• Palo Alto Networks PA-Series Firewalls Consulting
• Check Point Software Consulting
• Barracuda CloudGen Firewall Consulting
• Watchguard Consulting
• Juniper Networks NetScreen and SSG Firewall Consulting
• SonicWall Consulting
• Fortinet FortiGate Firewall Consulting
• Symantec Raptor Consulting

To contact Progent about consulting expertise for Cisco technology, call 1-800-993-9400 or visit Contact Progent.