Cisco Network Consulting Firm

Cisco is a long-time leader in delivering state-of-the-art firewalls for the widest possible range of environments. Cisco's Firepower NGFWs Firewalls provide a modern cybersecurity platform that marshals dedicated hardware, cloud-based services, and machine learning to anticipate, identify, and mitigate threats automatically. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE-certified firewall consultants can assist your organization to plan and execute an efficient upgrade to Firepower firewalls from Cisco's from ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, or PIX firewalls and show you how to integrate Firepower firewalls with Cisco's cloud-based services to create and centrally manage IT ecosystems that include local offices, data centers, and cloud resources. Progent can also assist you to manage and debug legacy Cisco firewalls. Progent's certified cybersecurity experts can assist you with policy creation and tuning driven by industry best practices in order to build a consistent and effective cybersecurity profile that applies to all your endpoints at any location.

Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewall Appliances
Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls provide a major performance improvement over Cisco's popular ASA 5500-X firewalls and include centralized management and automation of advanced cybersecurity features like application visibility and control, 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 line of Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs), visit Firepower Series firewalls integration experts.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X and Legacy Firewalls
Cisco's ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, and PIX firewall appliances offer combined firewall, IPsec VPN, and IPS capabilities in compact single-box devices, delivering a wide range of features to match the security requirements of organizations ranging from small and mid-size businesses to enterprises and ISPs. Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500, and PIX 500 firewall appliances allow network security staffs to defend their network edge and offer safe remote access while using powerful management tools based on Cisco's world-class firewall products.

Cisco's ASA 5500 and PIX 500 firewalls have arrived at end-of-life (EOL) but are still commonly used in small and mid-size organizations as well as in some larger networks. Cisco's ASA 5500-X Next-Generation Firewalls represent substantially more bang for the buck and have superseded Cisco's ASA 5500 and PIX families of firewalls for new installations. Still, Cisco's older model firewalls, if carefully managed, continue to offer a high level of security by supplying multiple services such as firewall, Virtual Private Network (VPN) connections, and IPS.

Since Cisco's purchase of Sourcefire, the whole family of ASA 5500-X firewalls can be configured to enable Firepower Services, built on Sourcefire's Snort technology, which is the world's most popular intrusion protection system. Firepower services bring powerful new capabilities including advanced malware protection (AMP), URL filtering, dynamic threat analytics, and security automation.

Progent's Cisco CCIE-premier network consultants can assist you to maintain and troubleshoot older ASA 5500 and PIX firewall appliances and can also assist you to plan and carry out a smooth upgrade to Cisco's ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower Services. Progent can also help you to design, deploy, tune, manage and debug new firewall ecosystems built on Cisco's current ASA 5500-X firewalls with Firepower Services. Progent's firewall consultants can also assist you to upgrade from your Cisco ASA 5500-X Series deployment to Cisco's Firepower Next Generation Firewalls.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Firewall Product Family
Cisco's comprehensive family of ASA 5500-X firewalls includes an enhanced replacement for each rack-mountable model in the previous ASA 5500 generation of firewalls. Each ASA 5500-X model targets the same market as the associated earlier models, which offers small and midsize businesses plenty of room for picking a firewall that aligns with their security requirements and budgets. All ASA 5500-X products are based on Cisco's tested stateful-inspection firewall technology and all incorporate 64-bit hardware with multicore CPUs and support Cisco's powerful security services. All models in Cisco's ASA 5500-X product line provide dependable protection across any combination of physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

For additional information about Cisco's ASA 5500-X security appliances, Cisco Firepower services, and Progent's support for Cisco ASA security appliances, see Firepower configuration and troubleshooting consulting

Cisco's Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X Security Appliances
Cisco ASA 5500-X firewalls accept either software or physical modules that enable Cisco's Firepower Services, which offer layered defense against multi-vector threats. Firepower Services are powered by technology adopted by Cisco from Sourcefire. Major features of Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X security appliances include:

• Multi-layer defense against familiar and new threats
• Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection that utilizes big data techniques to discover and remediate intrusions
• A Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System that provides contextual analysis that covers clients, network infrastructure, apps, and content to discover attacks that use multiple approaches
• Fine-grained Application Visibility and Control that is aware of thousands of apps and can automatically launch both standard and custom IPS policies based on the degree of risk

Simpler implementations of ASA 5500-X firewalls can be effectively managed via Cisco's on-box Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM) Adaptive Security Device Manager, a web-based utility provided with all ASA 5500-X versions. ASDM provides an easy-to-use web dashboard for deploying, managing, and debugging ASA 5500-X appliances and service modules.

For multi-device and multi-site deployments, ASA 5500-X appliances with Firepower Services can be managed with Firepower Management Center, implemented as one or several physical units or virtual appliances. Firepower Management Center offers unified firewall management, Application Visibility and Control, enhanced IPS, URL filtering, and Advanced Malware Protection. Because of ongoing 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 Cisco Firesight Management Center.

Firepower Management Center offers features beyond those available with Cisco's on-box ASDM tool. Additional capabilities include expanded context awareness, Cisco's Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) with mitigation for user devices, a dashboard that provides dynamic infrastructure visualization, automated policy optimization driven by impact assessment of threats, advanced IPS, custom application detectors for Application Visibility and Control (AVC), customized health alerts, enhanced reporting options, and application interfaces for host input and database access. Hardware-dependent capabilities like clustering, stacking, switching, routing, VPN, and NAT must be managed using Cisco's ASA 5500-X on-device ASDM or the ASA CLI.

Cisco ASA 5500 Adaptive Security Appliances
Cisco ASA Firewalls build on technology developed for the PIX 500 firewall, the IPS 4200 sensor, and the VPN 3000 Series concentrator. These technologies enable the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall family to offer a firewall that defends against the broadest variety of threats. Cisco ASA Firewalls provide program security, network containment and control, and safe Virtual Private Network connectivity throughout Cisco's product line. This broad scope of security allows defense of any network area, which includes the most common attack vectors like remote locations, locally-connected inside users, and remote connected VPNs.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series firewalls provide robust application security through smart, application-sensitive inspection processes that examine traffic at Layers 4-7. The result is a more secure environment covering Web, voice, and 3G-mobile wireless connectivity. To defend against application-layer assaults and to offer stronger policing of the programs and protocols utilized in their networks, these inspection engines incorporate extensive application and protocol knowledge and employ protection enforcement technologies such as protocol anomaly detection and state monitoring. Also included are assault sensing and remediation technology such as application/protocol command filters and content verification. Cisco ASA 5500 Series firewall inspection engines also provide control over IM and peer-to-peer file sharing, enabling businesses to enforce usage policies and conserve network bandwidth for critical business applications.

For additional information about Progent's support services for Cisco's ASA 5500 firewalls, go to Cisco ASA 5500 series firewalls integration and troubleshooting services.

Cisco PIX Firewalls
Built around a tested, purpose-built software platform that delivers a wealth of security features, Cisco PIX firewalls provide a high level of security and have received Common Criteria Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL) 4 status and ICSA Labs Firewall and IP Security certification. PIX firewalls provide security for a broad array of VoIP and additional mixed-media standards including H.323 v. 4, Session Initiation Protocol, Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), RTSP, and Media Gateway Control Protocol (MGCP), helping businesses to protect installations of a broad range of contemporary and upcoming Voice over IP and multimedia applications.

Administrators can also remotely set up, monitor, and troubleshoot Cisco PIX firewall appliances using a command-line interface. Safe command-line interface communication is possible using several methods such as Secure Shell Protocol, Telnet through IPsec, and out-of-band via a console port. Cisco PIX firewall appliances also include robust auto-update features, a collection of revolutionary secure remote-administration services that ensure security settings and software images are kept up to date.

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

Progent's Migration Support for Cisco Firewalls
Since Cisco has ceased offering the PIX and ASA 5500 product lines, many companies are uncomfortable with relying on a key infrastructure mechanism that might no longer be supported by Cisco. ASA 5500-X and Firepower NGFW Series security appliances have the advantage of being current devices and also bring a number of technical and financial advantages in comparison to PIX 500 devices. These advantages include substantially better performance, optional Secure Sockets Layer tunneling support, and a modular architecture that guards your investment by allowing you to self-install more security features whenever you require them. Progent's Cisco certified network engineers can help your company to determine the business case for migrating from PIX or Cisco ASA 5500 firewalls, design a migration plan that allows for a fast and non-disruptive changeover, help you to install new ASA 5500-x or Firepower Series firewalls, and provide online, consulting, and troubleshooting services.

Additional Ways Progent Can Assist You with Cisco Firewalls
Cisco's Firepower Series, ASA Series, and PIX family security appliances incorporate an array of setup, tracking, and troubleshooting features which give you the ability to configure these security appliances to align optimally with your company's requirements. Progent's CCIE authorized network professionals can show you how to design an efficient infrastructure that includes Cisco firewall technology and that offers world-class protection, resilience, throughput, and manageability. Progent's GISA and CISM-certified IS security engineers can help your business to develop a security policy appropriate for your business and can set up your firewall to support your security strategy. Progent's risk assessment professionals can assess the strength of your existing firewall deployment and validate the security of your whole IS environment. Progent's Technical Response Center can deliver urgent remote troubleshooting for Cisco products and can give you quick access to a Cisco expert.

To learn additional information concerning Progent's consulting help for Cisco products, pick a subject:

• Introduction to Progent's Cisco Support
• Fast and Affordable Remote Help from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Engineer
• Cisco Routers Consulting Services
• Cisco Wireless Deployment Expertise
• Aironet Access Points Design Services
• Cisco Small Business Wireless Access Points System Design Services
• Catalyst 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless Access Points Planning, Deployment and Debugging Support
• Cisco Wireless Controllers Integration Consulting
• Meraki Wireless Access Points Design Services
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Consulting and Technical Support
• Cisco Voice over IP Phones and IP Video Desktop Phones Consulting and Wireless VoIP Phone Solutions
• Cisco Jabber Migration and Support Expertise
• Catalyst Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Nexus Switches Consulting and Support Expertise
• Meraki Switches Configuration and Maintenance Services
• Cisco VPN Integration Services
• SIP and CUBE Integration Solutions: SIP Trunks and Cisco CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication (2FA) Services for an At-Home Workforce
• Design and Support for Cisco-powered Datacenters
• Data Center Optimization Consulting for Internet Service Providers
• Centralized Cloud-based and Hybrid Network Management Technologies for Cisco-powered 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 technical help for Cisco technology, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.