Cisco ASA 5516 upgrade/replacement suggestions

[Sparkeyluv]

Our upgrade cycle is coming to an end. With that said, we currently have a Cisco ASA 5516-X Network Security/Firewall Appliance. Any suggestions on what firewall we should look at for replacement or upgrading to? At the moment the only concern is Fire power. We keep hearing grumbles of how garbage and or unfriendly it is. Any suggestions or comments? Does anyone know of any Firepower in person or online classes fore the product? 

[Rob Ingram]

Hi,

The Firepower 1000 series would be the equivalent of the ASA 5516 you are currently running. Checkout the datasheet below and determine the exact specification and model of the devices.

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/security/firepower-1000-series/datasheet-c78-742469.html

You can run either traditional ASA software or the newer FTD software on the hardware. FTD software has come along way recently and the performance is much improved.

Link to the training

https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/training-events/training-certifications/training/training-services/courses/securing-networks-with-cisco-firepower-next-generation-firewall-ssngfw.html

[Marvin Rhoads]

Firepower has indeed improved greatly. The current 6.6 release is quite nice. There are a few things it doesn't do that classic ASAs did (mostly more advanced VPN options) but there are also a good number of things it does well that ASAs never did.

For training there are a ton of free Cisco Live presentations and things like LabMinutes.com. There's also formal training from the usual Cisco authorized training providers.