Cisco IT Consultants

Cisco is a long-time leader in developing cutting-edge firewall appliances for the broadest possible range of environments. Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls represent an advanced firewall platform that marshals dedicated hardware, cloud services, and next-generation intrusion protection system (NGIPS) to block, discover, and mitigate cyber attacks automatically. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE-certified firewall experts can help your organization to design and execute an efficient migration to Firepower firewalls from Cisco's from ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, or PIX appliances and show you how to enhance Firepower appliances with Cisco's subscription-based security services to build and centrally control IT ecosystems that include branch offices, data centers, private clouds and public clouds. Progent can also assist you to manage and debug legacy Cisco firewalls. Progent's certified cybersecurity experts can help you with policy creation driven by industry best practices in order to build a consistent and effective security posture across all your endpoints anywhere.

Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls
Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls deliver a significant performance improvement over Cisco's previous-generation ASA 5500-X firewalls and include centralized control of advanced cybersecurity features like application visibility and control, next-generation intrusion protection with risk prioritization, advanced malware protection, URL filtering, and multi-node sandboxing. For details about Cisco's Firepower family of Next Generation Firewalls, see Firepower firewalls consulting expertise.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series and Legacy Firewalls
Cisco's ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX firewalls offer combined firewall, IPsec VPN, and intrusion prevention system (IPS) capabilities in single-box packages, delivering a wide range of features to meet the security and compliance needs of organizations ranging from small businesses to enterprises and Internet service providers. Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX 500 firewalls allow network security teams to protect their network perimeter and provide secure offsite and mobile access while utilizing powerful management mechanisms built on Cisco's world-class firewall technology.

Cisco's ASA 5500 Series and PIX firewall appliances have arrived at end-of-life (EOL) but are still widely deployed in smaller organizations as well as in some larger data centers. Cisco's ASA 5500-X Next-Generation Firewalls deliver significantly more value and have superseded the ASA 5500 and PIX 500 lines of firewalls for new installations. However, Cisco's legacy firewall appliances, if properly maintained, can deliver a high degree of protection by providing multiple services including firewall, VPN tunneling, and IPS.

Following Cisco's purchase of Sourcefire, the entire line of Cisco ASA 5500-X devices can be configured to enable Firepower Services, based on Sourcefire's Snort technology, which is the world's most deployed network intrusion protection system (IPS). Firepower services bring enhanced capabilities including advanced malware protection (AMP), URL filtering, real-time threat analytics, and security automation.

Progent's Cisco-certified network consultants can assist you to maintain and troubleshoot older ASA 5500 and PIX 500 firewalls and can also help you to design and carry out a smooth migration to Cisco's ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower Services. Progent can also help you to plan, deploy, optimize, administer and troubleshoot new firewall solutions built on Cisco's latest ASA 5500-X models with Firepower. Progent's firewall consultants can also assist your organization to upgrade from your Cisco ASA 5500-X solution to Cisco's latest Firepower Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs).

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series Firewalls
Cisco's comprehensive line of ASA 5500-X security appliances features an enhanced replacement for every rack-mountable unit in the previous ASA 5500 generation of devices. Each ASA 5500-X model is suited for the identical environment as the corresponding earlier models, which gives most plenty of room for selecting a firewall that aligns with their security requirements and IT budgets. All ASA 5500-X products are based on Cisco's proven stateful-inspection firewall technology and all incorporate purpose-built 64-bit hardware with multicore processors and are capable of running Cisco's powerful security services. All devices in Cisco's ASA 5500-X family provide dependable security across any mix of physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

For more details about Cisco's ASA 5500-X security appliances, Firepower services, and Progent's consulting for ASA security appliances, visit Firepower configuration and troubleshooting consulting

Cisco's Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X Security Appliances
Cisco ASA 5500-X security appliances work with either software or hardware modules that support Firepower Services, which offer layered protection against sophisticated attacks. Firepower Services are based on innovative technology acquired by Cisco from Sourcefire. Major capabilities of Firepower Services for ASA firewalls include:

• Layered protection against both familiar and new attacks
• Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) that utilizes big data to find and remediate intrusions
• A Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS) that performs contextual analysis that covers users, network infrastructure, apps, and content to detect threats that use simultaneous vectors
• Fine-grained Application Visibility and Control (AVC that is familiar with thousands of applications and can automatically launch standard and custom IPS policies based on the degree of risk

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

For more complex deployments, ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower can be administered with Cisco's Firepower Management Center, implemented as one or more physical or virtual devices. Firepower Management Center offers centralized firewall management, Application Visibility and Control, advanced IPS, URL filtering, and Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection (AMP). Because of frequent rebranding after Cisco's purchase of Sourcefire Defense Center, Cisco's Firepower Management Center has been delivered under various names including Cisco Defense Center, FireSIGHT Defense Center, and FireSIGHT Management Center.

Cisco's Firepower Management Center provides features beyond those available with Cisco's on-device Adaptive Security Device Manager utility. Extra features include expanded context awareness, Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection with mitigation for user devices, a console that provides real-time infrastructure visualization, automated policy tuning based on risk evaluation of threats, comprehensive IPS, custom app discovery for Application Visibility and Control (AVC), customized health alerts, improved reporting features, and APIs for host input and databases. Hardware-dependent options like clustering, stacking, switching, routing, VPN, and NAT must be handled using either Cisco's ASA 5500-X on-box ASDM or the ASA CLI.

Cisco ASA 5500 Family of Adaptive Security Appliances
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances Firewalls build on technology developed for the Cisco PIX 500 family firewall, Cisco's IPS 4200 Intrusion Prevention System, and the VPN 3000 model concentrator. These solutions enable the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewall product line to deliver a firewall that defends against the broadest variety of threats. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances Firewalls deliver program protection, network containment, and clean VPN connectivity throughout Cisco's product line. This broad scope of protection allows the guarding of any network section, which includes the most typical attack conduits such as remote sites, locally-connected internal users, and remote connected Virtual Private Networks.

Cisco ASA firewalls provide a high-level of application security via smart, application-sensitive inspection engines that analyze traffic at Layers 4-7. This produces a better protected network including Web, voice, and mobile wireless access. To defend networks against application-layer assaults and to provide stronger policing of the applications and protocols utilized in their networks, these inspection engines integrate extensive application and protocol knowledgebases and employ protection enforcement solutions that include anomaly sensing and application and protocol state monitoring. Also incorporated are attack detection and remediation technology such as application and protocol command filtering and URL deobfuscation. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewall inspection engines also deliver management of instant messaging and peer-to-peer file sharing, enabling businesses to enforce usage policies and recover network bandwidth for critical business applications.

For additional details about Progent's consulting services for Cisco's ASA 5500 firewalls, go to ASA 5500 firewalls configuration and debugging consulting.

Cisco PIX Firewalls
Based upon a tested, purpose-built operating system that delivers rich protection features, Cisco PIX security appliances offer a high level of protection and have received EAL 4 status and ICSA Labs Firewall and IPsec certification. Cisco PIX firewalls offer protection for a broad range of Voice over IP and additional mixed-media conventions such as H.323 v. 4, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), SCCP, RTSP, and Media Gateway Control Protocol, enabling businesses to safeguard deployments of a broad range of contemporary and upcoming VoIP and video applications.

Administrators can also remotely configure, track, and troubleshoot PIX firewall appliances via a command-line interface (CLI). Secure CLI interface access is available through a number of methods including Secure Shell Protocol, Telnet over IPsec, and out-of-band via a console port. Cisco PIX firewall appliances also have dependable auto-update features, a set of revolutionary protected remote-administration options that ensure security configurations and software images are kept up to date.

For additional details about Progent's support services for PIX 500 security appliances, visit Cisco PIX 500 firewalls configuration and debugging support.

Progent's Migration Support Services for Cisco Firewalls
Since Cisco has stopped offering the PIX and ASA 5500 families of firewalls, many businesses are uncomfortable with depending on a key security component that may stop being supported. Cisco ASA 5500-X and Firepower Series firewalls have the benefit of being new products and also bring a number of technical and budgetary advantages in comparison to PIX devices. These benefits include significantly higher throughput, optional SSL tunneling support, and a modular architecture that guards your investment by allowing you to self-install more security services whenever you require them. Progent's CCIE-certified experts can help your company to determine the strategic value of for upgrading from PIX 500 or Cisco ASA 5500 security appliances, design a migration plan that allows for a fast and non-disruptive upgrade, assist your IT staff to install new ASA 5500-x or Firepower Series firewalls, and provide remote training, consulting, and technical support services.

Additional Ways Progent Can Assist Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls
Cisco Firepower NGFW Series, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX family firewalls provide a wealth of setup, monitoring, and analysis features that give you the ability to set up these security appliances to match your company's requirements. Progent's CCIE authorized network consultants can show you how to build an efficient network infrastructure that includes Cisco firewalls and that offers advanced security, resilience, throughput, and recoverability. Progent's CISA and CISM-certified IS security consultants can assist your business to create a security policy appropriate for your situation and can set up your security appliance to enforce your security strategy. Progent's risk evaluation experts can evaluate the effectiveness of your existing firewall deployment and validate the security of your whole IT environment. Progent's Technical Response Center can provide urgent remote troubleshooting for Cisco technology and offer fast access to a Cisco CCIE network engineer.

For additional details about Progent's engineering help for Cisco technology, choose a topic:

• Overview of Cisco Network Support
• Fast and Affordable Remote Support from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Network Engineer
• Cisco Routers Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Engineering Expertise
• Aironet APs Design Expertise
• Cisco Small Business WiFi Access Points Deployment Services
• Cisco Catalyst 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless APs Planning, Deployment and Troubleshooting Consulting
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Experts
• Cisco Meraki Wireless APs Design Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Integration and Technical Support
• Cisco Voice over IP Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber Migration and Support Expertise
• Catalyst Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Nexus Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Meraki Switches Deployment Services
• Cisco VPN and Network Security Engineering Support
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication Services for an At-Home Workforce
• Design Expertise for Cisco-based Data Centers
• Network Design Services for Internet Service Providers
• Centralized Cloud-based and Hybrid Network Management Strategies for Cisco 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

If you wish to get in touch with Progent about engineering help for Cisco technology, phone 1-800-993-9400 or refer to Contact Progent.