Cisco IT Consulting Firm

Cisco is a long-time front-runner in delivering state-of-the-art firewalls for the widest possible range of environments. Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs) provide a modern firewall solution that marshals sophisticated hardware, cloud-based services, and machine learning to block, discover, and mitigate threats automatically. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE-certified firewall consultants can assist you to design and carry out a smooth migration to Firepower firewalls from Cisco's from ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, or PIX firewalls and help you enhance Firepower appliances with Cisco's security services to build and centrally control IT ecosystems that span branch offices, data centers, private clouds and public clouds. Progent can also help you to maintain and troubleshoot older-generation Cisco security appliances. Progent's certified network security consultants can help you with policy creation and tuning driven by leading best practices in order to establish a consistent cybersecurity profile that applies to all your devices anywhere.

Cisco's Firepower NGFW Firewall Appliances
Cisco's Firepower NGFWs Firewalls provide a major performance boost over Cisco's popular ASA 5500-X security appliances and include unified management of modern security features like application visibility, next-generation intrusion protection (NGIPS) with risk prioritization, advanced malware protection (AMP), URL filtering, and sandboxing. For details about Cisco's Firepower line of Next Generation Firewalls, visit Cisco Firepower Series firewalls integration services.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X and Legacy Firewalls
Cisco’s ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX 500 firewall appliances provide integrated firewall, IPsec VPN, and IPS services in single-box devices, delivering a wide array of features to meet the security needs of organizations from small and mid-size businesses to enterprises and ISPs. Cisco’s ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX 500 firewall appliances enable IT security staffs to protect their network perimeter and provide safe remote connectivity while using powerful administration mechanisms based on Cisco's industry-leading firewall technology.

Cisco’s ASA 5500 Series and PIX 500 firewall appliances have reached end-of-life status but remain widely used in smaller organizations as well as in a few larger data centers. Cisco’s ASA 5500-X Next-Generation Firewalls represent significantly more value and have supplanted Cisco's ASA 5500 and PIX 500 families of firewalls for new installations. However, Cisco's legacy firewalls, if properly maintained, can deliver a high degree of protection by providing multiple services including firewall, Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections, and IPS.

Since Cisco's purchase of Sourcefire, the entire family of Cisco ASA 5500-X devices can be configured to support Firepower Services, based on Sourcefire's Snort technology, which is the market's most popular intrusion protection system. Firepower services provide powerful new capabilities such as advanced malware protection (AMP), URL filtering, dynamic threat analytics, and security automation.

Progent's Cisco CCIE-certified network consultants can help your organization to support and debug legacy ASA 5500 and PIX firewalls and can also help you to design and implement a smooth migration to Cisco’s ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower. Progent can also assist you to plan, integrate, optimize, manage and troubleshoot new firewall ecosystems based on Cisco's latest ASA 5500-X models with Firepower. Progent's firewall consultants can also help your organization to migrate from your Cisco ASA 5500-X Series deployment to Cisco's latest Firepower NGFWs Firewalls.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Firewall Product Family
Cisco's extensive line of ASA 5500-X firewalls features an improved replacement for every rack-mountable unit in the older ASA 5500 line of devices. Each ASA 5500-X model is suited for the same market as the corresponding earlier models, which offers most plenty of room for selecting a solution that meets their security requirements 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 CPUs and support Cisco's powerful security services. All devices in Cisco's ASA 5500-X product line deliver consistent security across any combination of physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

For additional details about Cisco's ASA 5500-X firewalls, Firepower services, and Progent's support for Cisco ASA 5500-X security appliances, go to Firepower integration and debugging expertise

Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X Firewalls
Cisco ASA 5500-X security appliances work with either software or physical modules that support Cisco's Firepower Services, which provide layered protection against advanced threats. Cisco's Firepower Services are powered by innovative technology adopted by Cisco from Sourcefire. Major features of Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X security appliances include:

• Layered protection against familiar and zero-day threats
• Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection that utilizes big data to find and mitigate security breaches
• A Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System that provides contextual analysis that looks at users, network infrastructure, software applications, and content to detect attacks that incorporate simultaneous approaches
• High-resolution Application Visibility and Control that is aware of thousands of apps and can automatically activate standard and custom IPS policies based on the degree of risk

Simpler deployments 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 utility included with all ASA 5500-X versions. ASDM provides a simple web console for deploying, administering, and debugging ASA 5500-X devices and modules.

For multi-device and multi-site 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 provides 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, Firepower Management Center has been offered under various names that include Cisco Defense Center, Cisco Firesight Defense Center, and FireSIGHT Management Center.

Cisco's Firepower Management Center provides features unavailable with Cisco's on-device ASDM utility. Additional features include greater context awareness, Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection with remediation for user devices, a console that provides dynamic network visualization, automated policy tuning based on risk evaluation of threats, advanced IPS, custom app discovery for Application Visibility and Control, customized health alerts, improved reporting options, and APIs for host input and database access. Hardware-dependent features such as clustering, stacking, switching, routing, VPN, and NAT must be managed using the on-device ASDM or the ASA 5500-X CLI.

Cisco ASA 5500 Family of Firewalls
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) Firewalls leverage engineering behind the Cisco PIX 500 family firewall, Cisco's IPS 4200 family sensor, and Cisco's VPN 3000 Series concentrator. These solutions converge on the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewall product line to deliver a firewall that defends against the broadest variety of attacks. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series Firewalls provide program security, network containment, and clean Virtual Private Network functionality throughout Cisco's product portfolio. This breadth of security enables defense of any network area, which includes the most common attack conduits such as remote locations, LAN-connected inside users, and off-site access Virtual Private Networks.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances firewalls provide a high-level of application protection through smart, application-sensitive inspection engines that analyze network flows at Layers 4-7. This produces a safer network covering Web, voice, and 3G-mobile wireless access. To protect networks against application-layer assaults and to offer stronger control over the programs and protocols used in their environments, Cisco's inspection engines incorporate broad application and protocol knowledge and rely on security enforcement technologies such as anomaly sensing and state monitoring. Also included are assault sensing and mitigation techniques including application/protocol command filters and URL deobfuscation. Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewall inspection engines also deliver management of instant messaging and tunneling applications, enabling businesses to enforce usage policies and free up bandwidth for critical business applications.

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

Cisco PIX Security Appliance Series
Built upon a hardened, specialized OS that delivers a wealth of protection features, Cisco PIX firewalls provide excellent security and have earned Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level 4 status and ICSA Firewall and IP Security (IPsec) certification. PIX firewalls provide security for a wide range of VoIP and additional mixed-media standards such as H.323 Version 4, SIP, Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol, Real-Time Streaming Protocol, and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), helping businesses to protect installations of a broad array of contemporary and upcoming VoIP and mixed-media applications.

Administrators can also remotely set up, monitor, and troubleshoot Cisco PIX firewalls using a CLI interface. Safe CLI interface communication is available through a number of methods including Secure Shell Protocol, Telnet over IP Security (IPsec), and out-of-band via a console port. PIX firewall appliances also have robust automatic-update capabilities, a set of revolutionary protected remote-management options that ensure firewall settings and software images are always current.

For more information about Progent's support services for PIX 500 firewalls, see Cisco PIX 500 firewalls integration and debugging consulting.

Progent's Migration Support for Cisco Firewalls
Since Cisco has stopped offering the PIX 500 and ASA 5500 families of firewalls, many businesses are concerned about depending on a critical infrastructure component that may no longer be supported. Cisco ASA 5500-X and Firepower Series security appliances have the benefit of being current devices and also bring several functions and financial benefits in comparison to PIX firewalls. These benefits include substantially better throughput, optional Secure Sockets Layer tunneling capability, and a modular design that protects your investment by allowing you to add new security features when and if you need them. Progent's Cisco network engineers can assist you to assess the business case for moving from PIX 500 or ASA 5500 firewalls, create a migration process that permits a fast and seamless changeover, help you to deploy new ASA 5500-x or Firepower NGFW Series appliances, and offer online, consulting, and technical support services.

Other Ways Progent Can Assist Your Business with Cisco ASA and PIX Security Appliances
Cisco's Firepower Series, ASA Series, and PIX security appliances incorporate a wealth of setup, monitoring, and troubleshooting options that offer you the ability to deploy these firewalls to match your business needs. Progent's CCIE authorized network professionals can help you to configure and support a cost-effective infrastructure that incorporates Cisco firewalls and that provides advanced protection, resilience, performance, and recoverability. Progent's CISA and CISSP-ISSP-premier information security professionals can assist your business to develop a security policy that makes sense for your environment and can configure your security appliance to enforce your security strategy. Progent's risk evaluation consultants can evaluate the strength of your current firewall deployment and validate the security of your whole IS network. Progent’s Help Desk Call Center can deliver urgent remote technical support for Cisco technology and offer fast access to a Cisco expert.

To learn additional information concerning Progent's consulting expertise for Cisco products, choose a topic:

• Introduction to Cisco Consulting Services
• Timely Remote Assistance from a Cisco CCIE Network Engineer
• Cisco Routers Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Engineering Help
• Aironet Wireless APs Deployment Expertise
• Cisco Small Business 100, 300 and 500 WiFi APs Engineering Support
• Cisco Catalyst 802.11ax Wireless APs Planning, Configuration and Troubleshooting Support
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Support Services
• Meraki Access Points Engineering Expertise
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Consulting and Troubleshooting
• Cisco Voice over IP Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting and Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber and Management Services
• Cisco Catalyst Switches Deployment Expertise
• Nexus Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Cisco Meraki Switches Deployment Expertise
• Cisco VPN and Security Setup and Troubleshooting Assistance
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP PSTN Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Expertise
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-powered Datacenters and Colocation Centers
• Data Center Optimization Expertise for ISPs
• Centralized Network Management Techniques for Cisco-based Infrastructure

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 contact Progent about consulting expertise for Cisco products, phone 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.