FMC-Cloud Server

[bmurphree@myemma.com]

Now that Cisco has owned Meraki for a few years, is there any potential for the FirePower Management to be cloud-based? More modern offices are not connecting together now that most applications are cloud-based or in AWS, for example. However, we do still require firewalls at these sights.

Meraki offer a cloud-based MX model firewall, but managing rules within that device are very basic and not easy to work with (not that FDM is any better), and Meraki still doesn't seem to understand what 1:Many NAT (PAT) really is used for in most scenarios. However, Meraki killed it in making such a device cloud-managed, demonstrating they were millenniums ahead of Cisco and everyone else in how to manage a network. And this isn't mean to be be degrading, as Cisco was swift in grabbing Meraki. Best decision they made in a while!!

Anyway, the current FMCv console is build-able in AWS, but still requires it to connect with each firewall vs. the firewall providing a dynamic call-home connection. Plus, you can't use both FMC and FDM to manage the firewall, unfortunately.

[Rob Ingram]

Hi,

There is no option to run FMC in the cloud, but there is Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) which is cloud based and can manage FTD. Not all features that can be configured on the FMC are currently supported in CDO yet. Datasheet here.

HTH

[Marvin Rhoads]

As noted we can run FMC in AWS (and Azure too).

CDO is the "Meraki-like" option for true cloud-based management of Firepower (and ASA and even some aspects of Meraki security devices all in one place).

Onboarding an FTD device in CDO and configuring from there is quite easy. As @Rob Ingram noted it doesn't yet offer 100% feature compatibility with FMC; but for many customers it will be just fine.