Is A Firepower NGFW Worth It IF You Dont Have The Threat/Malware/URL Licenses?

[1timcisco]

I'm in the infosec field and have a firepower 1010 at home with a base license.  I use it for practice and to manage my home network. 

I was wondering from a security perspective if using this level FW is worth using without the Threat/Malware/URL Licenses vs just using any old firewall from walmart?  I am asking because getting these licenses will cost about $400 USD.  I need to learn about firewalls but my day job is not managing firewalls.  Although, I do need to know how the latest enterprise security solutions work and I feel the only way to do that is to get some time working with it at home.  Thanks for any suggestions or comments.  

[balaji.bandi]

If you Looking NGFW, that is the feature you need to Look for. If you looking basic FW you do not need advanced features, no point buying FTD ( for the investment point of view) - but as you mentioned learning, good place to start, you have hands on new tools.

[Rob Ingram]

@1timcisco 

As you appear to already have purchased the hardware, if you aren't planning on purchasing those licenses then you might be better off re-imaging the device to run ASA software (it can run FTD or ASA code). This is assuming you can get the image for the device.

The FTD without using an FMC to manage the device, uses local management via FDM, this has less features than if managed via the FMC. Using ASA software you will be able to configure more of the firewalls features (minus the NGFW features) and learn more about the firewall than you would using FDM. Features missing on FDM include Quality of Service, PBR etc

[1timcisco]

@Rob Ingram 

I am using the FMCv to manage the 1 Firepower 1010 device but the license says its not in compliance.  Is that risky for home/lab use?  Am I gaining much by using FMCv vs the built in FTD?

[Rob Ingram · Accepted solution]

@1timcisco 

Certainly if you are using FMCv to manage the FTD you will learn a lot more than you would with a walmart firewall and to a certain extent the if using FDM to manage the FTD. You'll be able to test most of the core firewall, vpn concepts on enterprise level firewall, that a lot of customer use.

No it's not risky in a home/lab, this is how most of us learn.