Can a Cisco ASA 5506-X handle a 500/500Mbps WAN connection?

[Boudewijn Plomp]

Hi,

I am thinking on buying a Cisco ASA 5506-X for my home lab environment. I do have a 500/500Mbps glass fiber internet connection, that is connected through a 1GbE uplink. A speedtest gets me round 530Mbps (66Mb/s) for both download and upload.

I am not planning to use the FirePOWER service. Do you think the Cisco ASA 5506-X can handle at least 500Mbps of WAN throughput? Does anybody have experience and did a speedtest?

NOTE: The documentation (from link below) says the stateful inspection thoughput is 750Mbps maximum. But the maximum throughput with Application Control (AVC) is maximum 250Mbps. So this is why I wonder if the hardware on this model can take it.

Cisco ASA with FirePOWER Services Data Sheet
http://cisco-apps.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/asa-5500-series-next-generation-firewalls/datasheet-c78-733916.html

[Aundre Dudley]

You honestly would be fine for home use. If you were to look at your average bandwidth usage over a hour period, you probably wouldn't surpass 50Mbps at your home. Although the 5506 is only rated at about 300Mbps, home traffic tends to be more bursty than sustained. You should be able to burst to 500Mbps on the ASA 5506 with no issues, which is what you are looking to do for home use. 

[Boudewijn Plomp]

Thanks. This is what I expect as well. Although I don't want to push it to its limit, prefer to have some headroom. I also have a VPN site-to-site connection with Microsoft Azure, with very limited traffic. I sometimes download ISO's and copy files between another environment which pushes it to its max. Did you happen to tested it yourself or is it what you asume?

I wish the 5508-X had no built-in fan. Otherwise that would be a better choice for me. It is rated for at least >42 dBA (A-rated type dB). Can't tell for sure if that is lower than normal dB.