Cisco Network Consulting Firm

Cisco is a perennial front-runner in developing cutting-edge firewall appliances for the broadest possible range of environments. Cisco's Firepower NGFWs Firewalls provide a modern cybersecurity solution that combines sophisticated hardware, cloud-based services, and machine learning to anticipate, discover, and mitigate threats without manual intervention. Progent's Cisco-certified CCIE firewall consultants can assist you to plan and carry out a smooth upgrade to Firepower firewalls from Cisco's legacy ASA 5500-X, ASA 5500, or PIX appliances and help you enhance Firepower appliances with Cisco's security services to create and centrally control IT ecosystems that include local offices, data centers, and cloud resources. Progent can also assist you to manage and troubleshoot legacy Cisco security appliances. Progent's certified cybersecurity consultants can help you with policy creation and tuning based on industry best practices in order to establish a consistent and effective security posture across all your devices anywhere.

Cisco's Firepower NGFW Firewalls
Cisco's Firepower NGFWs Firewalls provide a major performance improvement compared to Cisco's previous-generation ASA 5500-X firewalls and include centralized control of modern cybersecurity capabilities such as application visibility, next-generation intrusion protection (NGIPS) with risk prioritization, advanced malware protection (AMP), URL filtering, and multi-node sandboxing. For details about Cisco's Firepower line of Next Generation Firewalls (NGFWs), refer to 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 combined firewall, IPsec VPN, and intrusion prevention system services in compact single-box devices, delivering a broad range of features to match the security needs of companies from small businesses to enterprises and Internet service providers. Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX 500 firewalls allow IT security staffs to defend their network edge and offer secure remote access while using advanced administration mechanisms based on Cisco's industry-leading firewall products.

Cisco's ASA 5500 Series and PIX 500 firewalls have arrived at end-of-life but remain widely used in smaller organizations and in some larger networks. The ASA 5500-X Series Next-Generation Firewalls represent significantly more bang for the buck and have superseded Cisco's ASA 5500 and PIX 500 families of firewalls for new deployments. Still, Cisco's older model firewall appliances, if carefully maintained, continue to deliver a high level of protection by supplying multiple features including stateful firewall, VPN, and IPS.

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

Progent's Cisco-premier infrastructure engineers can assist you to maintain and debug legacy ASA 5500 Series and PIX 500 firewall appliances and can also help you to plan and carry out an efficient upgrade to Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series firewalls with Firepower. Progent can also help you to plan, integrate, optimize, administer and debug new firewall solutions built on Cisco's current ASA 5500-X models with Firepower Services. Progent's firewall consultants can also assist you to upgrade from your Cisco ASA 5500-X Series solution to Cisco's latest Firepower Next Generation Firewalls.

Cisco's ASA 5500-X Series Firewalls
Cisco's comprehensive family of ASA 5500-X security appliances features an enhanced replacement for each rack-mountable model in the older ASA 5500 series of firewalls. Each ASA 5500-X model is suited for the same environment as the corresponding earlier models, which gives most ample choice for picking a firewall that meets their security needs and budgets. All ASA 5500-X products build on Cisco's tested stateful-inspection firewall technology and all incorporate purpose-built 64-bit hardware with multicore processors and are capable of running Cisco's advanced security services. All devices in Cisco's ASA 5500-X family deliver dependable protection across any combination of physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

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

Cisco's Firepower Services for ASA 5500-X Security Appliances
Cisco ASA 5500-X security appliances work with either software or physical modules that enable Firepower Services, which provide layered protection against advanced threats. Firepower Services are based on innovative technology acquired by Cisco from Sourcefire. Major features of Firepower Services for ASA firewalls include:

• Multi-layer protection against familiar and zero-day threats
• Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) that utilizes big data to find and mitigate intrusions
• Cisco's Next-Generation Intrusion Prevention System that performs contextual analysis that covers clients, infrastructure, apps, and content to discover threats that use multiple vectors
• High-resolution Application Visibility and Control (AVC that is familiar with thousands of apps and can automatically activate standard and customized IPS policies depending on the severity of threats

Simpler deployments of Cisco ASA 5500-X 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 includes an easy-to-use web dashboard for configuring, managing, and debugging ASA 5500-X devices and modules.

For multi-device and multi-site deployments, ASA 5500-X appliances with Firepower can be managed with Cisco's Firepower Management Center, available as one or several physical units or virtual devices. Firepower Management Center provides centralized firewall management, Application Visibility and Control (AVC, enhanced IPS, URL filtering, and Advanced Malware Protection (AMP). Because of ongoing rebranding after Cisco's acquisition of Sourcefire Defense Center, Firepower Management Center has been delivered under various names that include Defense Center, FireSIGHT Defense Center, and FireSIGHT Management Center.

Cisco's Firepower Management Center offers capabilities unavailable with Cisco's on-device ASDM utility. Extra features include greater context awareness, Advanced Malware Protection with remediation for user devices, a console that offers dynamic network infrastructure visualization, automated policy optimization driven by risk evaluation of attacks, comprehensive IPS, custom app detectors for Application Visibility and Control (AVC), customized health alerts, enhanced reporting features, and application interfaces for host input and database access. Hardware-dependent capabilities such as clustering, stacking, switching, routing, VPN, and NAT must be managed via the on-device ASDM or the ASA 5500-X CLI.

Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances
Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances 5500 Series Firewalls build on engineering developed for the Cisco PIX 500 family Security Appliance, Cisco's IPS 4200 Series sensor, and the VPN 3000 family concentrator. These technologies enable the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series Firewall product line to deliver a platform that defends against the broadest range of threats. Cisco ASA Firewalls provide application security, network containment and control, and clean Virtual Private Network connectivity across the entire product portfolio. This breadth of protection enables the guarding of any network section, which includes the most common threat conduits such as remote locations, locally-attached internal users, and off-site connected VPNs.

Cisco Adaptive Security Appliances (ASA) 5500 Series firewalls provide a high-level of application protection via intelligent, application-sensitive inspection processes that examine network flows at Layers 4-7. This produces a more secure network including Web, voice, and mobile wireless access. To defend against application-layer attacks and to provide better control over the programs and protocols used in their environments, Cisco's inspection engines incorporate extensive application and protocol knowledgebases and employ protection enforcement solutions that include protocol anomaly detection and state tracking. Also incorporated are assault sensing and remediation techniques including application and protocol command filters and URL deobfuscation. Cisco ASA firewall inspection engines also deliver management of IM and peer-to-peer file sharing, enabling organizations to enforce usage policies and recover network bandwidth for critical business applications.

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

PIX Security Appliance Series
Built around a tested, specialized software platform that offers a wealth of protection services, Cisco PIX security appliances provide excellent protection and have been awarded EAL 4 status and ICSA Firewall and IP Security certification. Cisco PIX firewall appliances provide security for a broad array of Voice over IP and other mixed-media standards such as H.323 Version 4, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), Cisco Skinny Client Control Protocol (SCCP), Real-Time Streaming Protocol, and Media Gateway Control Protocol, enabling organizations to protect installations of a wide array of contemporary and upcoming Voice over IP and multimedia applications.

IT managers can furthermore remotely configure, track, and troubleshoot Cisco PIX firewalls via a command-line interface (CLI). Secure command-line interface (CLI) communication is available using several methods such as SSHv2 Protocol, Telnet through IP Security, and out-of-band through a console port. PIX firewalls also have robust auto-update capabilities, a collection of advanced protected remote-administration options that make sure that firewall settings and software images are kept up to date.

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

Progent's Migration Support for Cisco Firewalls
Because Cisco has stopped offering the PIX and ASA 5500 product lines, many businesses are uncomfortable with depending on a critical security component that might stop being supported. Cisco ASA 5500-X and Firepower NGFW Series firewalls have the advantage of being current products and also bring a number of functions and budgetary benefits in comparison to PIX devices. These advantages include significantly better throughput, optional SSL VPN support, and an expandable architecture that guards your investment by allowing you to add new security services when and if you need them. Progent's CCIE-certified network engineers can help your company to assess the strategic case for migrating from PIX or ASA 5500 security appliances, create a migration plan that allows for a fast and non-disruptive changeover, help your IT staff to install new ASA 5500-x or Firepower NGFW Series appliances, and offer online, consulting, and troubleshooting services.

Other Ways Progent Can Help You with Cisco Firewalls
Cisco's Firepower Series, ASA 5500 Series, and PIX firewalls incorporate an array of setup, monitoring, and analysis options that offer you the flexibility to deploy these security appliances to match your business requirements. Progent's CCIE certified network experts can help you to build a cost-effective infrastructure that incorporates Cisco security appliances and that provides advanced security, fault tolerance, throughput, and recoverability. Progent's GISA and CISM-certified information security engineers can assist you to create a security policy that makes sense for your environment and can configure your firewall to support your security strategy. Progent's risk evaluation consultants can assess the effectiveness of your current firewall deployment and validate the overall security of your whole information system network. Progent's Help Desk Call Center can provide emergency online troubleshooting for Cisco products and can give you fast access to a Cisco CCIE network engineer.

For additional details concerning Progent's consulting help for Cisco networking products, select a topic:

• Introduction to Cisco Expertise
• Timely Online Assistance from a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) Consultant
• Cisco Routers Configuration and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco Wireless Deployment Support
• Cisco Aironet Access Points Consulting Help
• Cisco Small Business Wireless APs Deployment Expertise
• Cisco Catalyst Wi-Fi 6/6E Wireless Access Points Solution Design, Configuration and Troubleshooting Services
• Cisco WiFi Controllers Consultants
• Meraki Wireless APs Deployment Support
• Cisco Unified Communications Manager (CUCM or Unified CM) and Cisco CallManager Configuration and Technical Support
• Cisco VoIP Phones and IP Video Phones Consulting Services and Cisco Wireless IP Phone Configuration
• Cisco Jabber Configuration and Troubleshooting Services
• Catalyst Switches Deployment Services
• Nexus Switches Deployment Services
• Meraki MS Switches Deployment Expertise
• Cisco VPN and Network Security Setup and Troubleshooting Services
• SIP and CUBE Infrastructure Solutions: SIP Trunking and CUBE Integration Consulting
• Cisco Duo MFA Two-factor Authentication Services for At-Home Workers
• Infrastructure Design for Cisco-based Datacenters and Colocation Centers
• Infrastructure Design Services for Service Providers
• Unified Cloud-based and Hybrid Management Techniques for Cisco-powered Environments

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 expertise for Cisco technology, call 1-800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.