Cisco ASA-5505 replacement

[WilliPrivat]

Hello,

I'm looking for a Cisco ASA-5505 replacement with much newer technology. Why is there no Cisco ASA-5505-X?

Maybe the Cisco SA540 is great solution?

GBit LAN

IPS

Next Generation Firewall Features

Regards - Willi

[Karsten Iwen]

The SA540 is EOL anounced, same as the successor, the ISA500.

With your specs, a hypothetical 5505-X wouldn't deliver what you want as that device had to be slower then the 5512-X.

I would look into the 5515-X with SSD so that you can go for ASA-CX later if you need that.

-- 
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[Marvin Rhoads]

5505 is not end of sales yet, just older technology.

CX is available only on the X series but it's not really caught on in a big way among customers.

Cisco IPS has never really captured a lot of market share. That's one reason why they are acquiring SourceFire.

For an all-Cisco solution you are best served right now with the firewall plus cloud-based web security (requires ASA 9.0 software) or a separate appliance for web security (like a Cisco Ironport WSA).

[WilliPrivat]

Hi Karsten,

I will check the specs of the Cisco ASA-5512-X/5515-X. Do you have experience how loud the ASA-5512-X/5515-X are?

Regards - Willi

[Karsten Iwen]

the noise is louder then anything you might want to have directly in your office. If you don't have a noice-canceling rack or an extra room, it's nothing you should consider.


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[paullevine]

Thing is, the 5512-X is, like, 4 times more costly than the 5505.  The 5505 is sweet for small businesses but looking a little long in the tooth; no Gig-E, poorer hardware specs than lots of competitors' newer models...  Is Cisco not going to offer an 'updated' 5505-type device in the sub-$1,000 space?

[Marvin Rhoads]

That's why a lot of SMBs pick SonicWall and such for the SOHO space.

I've also seen folks run little 800 series with DMVPN and IOS zone-based firewall (though I'm no fan of that latter bit personally).

[paullevine]

Yes, exactly, SonicWall.  But until it started to seem dated, the 5505 has been sweet for small but serious organizations with ~10 to 30 users.  Maybe Cisco is abandoning that market to the SOHO vendors?  Or is there a "Cisco Small Business" solution I'm not aware of?

[Marvin Rhoads]

There is the SA500 series targeted to the SOHO space.

I've not worked with them but you can pick one up for a bit over $300. They don't run ASA software and reviews are mixed.

[paullevine]

Thanks.  As you may know, the SA500 series is end-of-lifed.  It's replacement is the ISA500 series--which is end-of-lifing as we speak.  Amusingly, the suggested replacements for the ISA500 series include...the ASA 5505!, as well as the ~$2,000 5512-X and an apparently new line of "Meraki" products.  Wild stuff.  Full circle...to SonicWall.

G'night ;-)

[WilliPrivat]

A last question. Do I need the CX module for blocking applications like Skype/Facebook etc. ?

[Marvin Rhoads]

CX, with the AVC and WSE subscriptions is the full-featured filtering / blocking solution.

You can block it crudely with the base ASA (using regular expression and http inspection to block specific URLs).

You can also (with ASA 9.x) subscribe to Cisco's Cloud Security service and block sites using that feature.

[Israel Pinile]

Hi Willi! You might wanna check the Cisco Merkai MX Appliances as well(specifically the MX60). Has the features of the ASA 5505 plus you can manage this over the cloud as well. Here's the link of the data sheet:

http://cs.co/9004bhei

If you want to discuss this further, don't hesitate to send me an email at ipinile@cisco.com