Cisco Network Consulting Firm

Cisco is a long-time front-runner in delivering cutting-edge firewall appliances for the widest possible variety of deployments. Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls provide a modern cybersecurity solution that marshals sophisticated hardware, cloud services, and machine learning to block, discover, and respond to threats without manual intervention. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE firewall experts can help your organization to plan and carry out an efficient migration to Cisco Firepower Series firewalls from Cisco's legacy ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, or PIX appliances and help you integrate Firepower appliances with Cisco's security services to build and centrally control IT ecosystems that include branch offices, data centers, and cloud resources. Progent's firewall consultants can also help you to manage and debug older-generation Cisco firewalls. Progent's certified cybersecurity consultants can help you with policy creation based on leading best practices so you can build a consistent cybersecurity posture that applies to all your devices at any location.

Cisco's Firepower NGFW Firewall Appliances
Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls provide a significant performance boost over Cisco's popular ASA 5500-X security appliances and offer unified management and automation of advanced cybersecurity capabilities such as application visibility, next-generation intrusion protection with intelligent prioritization of risks, advanced malware protection (AMP), DDoS mitigation, and multi-node sandboxing. For more information about Cisco's Firepower portfolio of Next Generation Firewalls, visit Cisco Firepower firewalls integration experts.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series and Legacy Firewalls
Cisco’s ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500, and PIX firewall appliances offer combined firewall, VPN, and IPS services in compact single-box packages, delivering a broad array of features to match the security needs of organizations from small businesses to enterprises and ISPs. Cisco’s ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX 500 firewall appliances allow network security teams to defend their network perimeter and offer safe remote connectivity while using advanced administration mechanisms based on Cisco's world-class firewall technology.

Cisco’s ASA 5500 and PIX firewall appliances have arrived at end-of-life (EOL) status but remain widely used in small and mid-size businesses as well as in a few larger networks. The ASA 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls represent substantially more value and have supplanted Cisco's ASA 5500 and PIX lines of firewalls for new installations. Still, Cisco's legacy firewalls, if carefully managed, can deliver a high degree of security by providing multiple services such as firewall, VPN tunneling, and IPS.

After Cisco's acquisition of Sourcefire, the entire family of ASA 5500-X firewalls can be provisioned to enable Firepower Services, based on Sourcefire's Snort product, which is the world's most deployed 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-premier network engineers can assist your organization to maintain and debug legacy ASA 5500 and PIX firewall appliances and can also assist you to design and implement an efficient upgrade to Cisco’s ASA 5500-X Series firewalls with Firepower. Progent can also assist you to design, integrate, optimize, administer and debug new firewall solutions based on Cisco's latest ASA 5500-X models with Firepower. Progent can also assist your organization to upgrade from your Cisco ASA 5500-X deployment to Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Firewall Product Family
Cisco's extensive family of ASA 5500-X firewalls includes an improved substitute for every rack-mountable model in the older ASA 5500 line of devices. Each ASA 5500-X model is suited for the same environment as the associated earlier models, which gives most plenty of choice for picking a solution that aligns with their security needs and budgets. All ASA 5500-X firewalls are based on Cisco's tested stateful-inspection firewall technology and all include 64-bit hardware with multicore processors and are capable of running Cisco's advanced security services. All models in Cisco's ASA 5500-X family provide consistent protection across any combination of physical, virtual, and cloud deployments.

For more details about Cisco's ASA 5500-X firewalls, Firepower services, and Progent's consulting for ASA 5500-X security appliances, go to Firepower integration and troubleshooting consulting

Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X Firewalls
Cisco ASA 5500-X security appliances work with software or physical modules that enable Firepower Services, which offer layered protection against advanced attacks. Firepower Services are based on innovative technology adopted by Cisco from Sourcefire. Key capabilities of Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X security appliances include:

• Multi-layer protection against both familiar and zero-day attacks
• Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) that utilizes big data techniques to discover and remediate security breaches
• A Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System (NGIPS) that provides contextual analysis that looks at users, infrastructure, software applications, and content to discover threats that use multiple approaches
• High-resolution Application Visibility and Control (AVC that is familiar with thousands of apps and can automatically activate both standard and custom IPS policies based on the degree of threats

Smaller implementations of Cisco ASA firewalls can be efficiently administered using Cisco's on-box Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) Adaptive Security Device Manager, a web-based tool provided with all ASA 5500-X versions. ASDM provides a simple web console for configuring, administering, and debugging ASA 5500-X appliances and service modules.

For more complex environments, ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower Services can be managed using Cisco's Firepower Management Center, implemented as one or several physical units or virtual appliances. Cisco's Firepower Management Center offers centralized firewall management, Application Visibility and Control (AVC, advanced IPS, URL filtering, and Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection. Due to ongoing rebranding after Cisco's acquisition of Sourcefire Defense Center, Cisco's Firepower Management Center has been offered under various names including Cisco Defense Center, FireSIGHT Defense Center, and FireSIGHT Management Center.

Cisco's Firepower Management Center offers capabilities unavailable with Cisco's on-device Adaptive Security Device Manager tool. Additional capabilities include expanded context awareness, Advanced Malware Protection with mitigation for client devices, a console that offers dynamic infrastructure visualization, automated policy tuning based on impact assessment of threats, comprehensive IPS, custom app discovery for Application Visibility and Control, customized health notifications, enhanced reporting options, and application interfaces for host input and databases. Hardware-dependent features such as clustering, stacking, switching, routing, VPN, and NAT must be handled via the on-device ASDM or the ASA CLI.

Cisco ASA 5500 Firewalls
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) Firewalls build on technology developed for the PIX 500 family Security Appliance, the IPS 4200 sensor, and the Cisco VPN 3000 model concentrator. These solutions converge on the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewall family to offer a firewall that stops the broadest range of threats. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewalls deliver program security, local containment and control, and clean VPN connectivity across Cisco's product line. This broad scope of security enables defense of any network segment, including the most typical threat conduits like remote locations, LAN-attached internal users, and off-site connected VPNs.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewalls deliver a high-level of application security via smart, application-sensitive inspection engines that analyze network flows at Layers 4-7. This produces a safer environment covering Web, voice, and 3G-mobile wireless access. To protect networks against application-layer attacks 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 security enforcement solutions that include anomaly sensing and state monitoring. Also included are attack detection and mitigation techniques such as application/protocol command filters and URL deobfuscation. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series firewall inspection engines also deliver control over instant messaging and tunneling applications, allowing businesses to police usage policies and conserve network bandwidth for crucial business applications.

For more details about Progent's consulting services for Cisco's ASA 5500 firewalls, see ASA 5500 series firewalls integration and troubleshooting services.

Cisco PIX Firewall Appliances
Based around a tested, purpose-built operating system that delivers rich security features, Cisco PIX firewalls offer a high level of protection and have earned Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 status and ICSA Labs Firewall and IP Security certification. PIX firewall appliances provide security for a broad array of VoIP and additional mixed-media standards such as H.323 v. 4, Session Initiation Protocol, Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol, Real-Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP), and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), helping businesses to protect installations of a broad array of current and upcoming Voice over IP and video applications.

IT managers can furthermore remotely configure, monitor, and troubleshoot Cisco PIX firewall appliances using a CLI interface. Safe command-line interface (CLI) communication is available using a number of techniques such as Secure Shell (SSHv2) Protocol, Telnet through IPsec, and out-of-band through a console port. Cisco PIX firewalls also have robust automatic-update features, a collection of revolutionary protected remote-administration services that ensure firewall settings and software images are always current.

For more details about Progent's support services for Cisco PIX 500 security appliances, visit PIX 500 firewalls integration and troubleshooting services.

Progent's Migration Consulting Support for Cisco Firewalls
Since Cisco has stopped selling the PIX 500 and ASA 5500 product lines, many businesses are uncomfortable with relying on a critical security component that may stop being supported by Cisco. Cisco ASA 5500-X and Firepower Series firewalls offer the advantage of being current products and also offer several technical and budgetary advantages in comparison to PIX devices. These advantages include significantly higher throughput, optional Secure Sockets Layer VPN support, and an expandable architecture that protects your investment by enabling you to add new security features when and if you need them. Progent's Cisco certified network engineers can help you to assess the business value of for migrating from PIX 500 or ASA 5500 firewalls, create a migration process that allows for a fast and seamless upgrade, assist you to install new ASA 5500-x or Firepower NGFW Series appliances, and offer online, consulting, and troubleshooting services.

Additional Ways Progent Can Help You with Cisco ASA and PIX Firewalls
Cisco Firepower Series, ASA Series, and PIX family security appliances provide an array of setup, monitoring, and troubleshooting features that give you the flexibility to configure these firewalls to align optimally with your business needs. Progent's CCIE certified network experts can help you to design a cost-effective network infrastructure that includes Cisco firewall technology and that provides world-class security, fault tolerance, performance, and recoverability. Progent's GISA and CISM-premier information security engineers can assist your business to develop a security policy that makes sense for your situation and can set up your firewall to enforce your security policies. Progent's risk evaluation consultants can evaluate the effectiveness of your current firewall deployment and audit the overall security of your whole information system network. Progent’s Help Desk Call Center can provide emergency remote troubleshooting for Cisco technology and can give you fast access to a Cisco CCIE network engineer.

To see additional information concerning Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco technology, select a topic:

• Overview of Progent's Cisco Network Support
• Fast Remote Assistance from a Cisco CCIE Engineer
• ASA 5500-X Series Firewall with Firepower Services: Configuration and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco Routers Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Network Design Help
• Aironet Wireless Access Points Engineering Services
• Cisco Small Business Wireless APs Consulting Expertise
• Catalyst 802.11ax Wireless APs Planning, Deployment and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco Wireless Controllers Consulting
• Cisco Meraki Access Points Consulting Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and CallManager Consulting and Troubleshooting
• Cisco Voice over IP (VoIP) Phones and IP Video Phones Expertise and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber Consulting and Support Expertise
• Catalyst Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Nexus Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Meraki Switches Consulting and Support Services
• Cisco VPN and Network Security Integration Assistance
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP Trunking and CUBE Integration Expertise
• Design Solutions for Cisco-based Datacenters and Colocation Centers
• Network Optimization Expertise for ISPs
• Streamlined Network Management Technologies for Cisco-based Environments

Integration of Cisco and Third-party Security 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:

• Check Point Software Consulting
• Watchguard Consulting
• Juniper Networks NetScreen and SSG Firewall Consulting
• SonicWall Consulting
• Symantec Raptor Consulting

If you wish to ask Progent about professional support for Cisco products, call 1-800-993-9400 or see Contact Progent.