After a rigorous evaluation of 10 firewall solution vendors, Cisco was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave?: Enterprise Firewall Solutions, Q4 2024 report. We are incredibly excited to receive this recognition, achieving the highest scores possible in 15 of the 27 evaluated criteria - which is defined by Forrester as superior relative to others in this evaluation - including policy creation and management, threat intelligence, microperimeters, vision and innovation.

While new threats are constantly emerging in the security landscape, there are a few underlying core challenges that persist: a lack of unified visibility across on-prem and cloud networks, complex decryption processes and inconsistent security enforcement across hybrid/multi-cloud environments. On top of that, the industry is grappling with high turnover, and a need for more trained administrators, further complicating the management of evolving firewall features and policies.

Cisco has been at the forefront of solving real problems for the customers while leapfrogging the current Next-Generation Firewall solutions (or now traditional NGFWs) in the market today.  With a robust combination of advanced decryption, threat detection and specialized protections for diverse environments, Cisco's vision is to deliver seamless security across all critical junctions of user, device and application interactions.

Reading the report, Forrester noted the following in Cisco's vendor profile that we are particularly proud of.

Seamless integration of AI and security in the networking fabric

Bringing together networking with security, Forrester states that Cisco is, "leveraging these strengths to craft a security strategy that envisions the seamless integration of AI and security in the networking fabric."

We embed security controls at every critical interaction point. This includes integrating network security within the infrastructure, the endpoint and application security, creating a cohesive security fabric that spans on-premises, cloud and hybrid environments. This allows Cisco to shine when security meets the network.

A multilayered approach to traffic inspection and decryption

 Attackers hide in plain sight by using encryption to their advantage. Traditional mechanisms of decrypting traffic to look for threats have its challenges because of the performance impact and higher latency caused by decryption. With Cisco Secure Firewall, you no longer must choose between security and performance.

With minimal performance impact, Cisco Secure Firewall offers unparalleled capabilities in decrypting and inspecting encrypted traffic, such as TLS 1.3 and QUIC. As Forrester points out, Cisco's, "Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE) uses machine learning to identify traffic based on behavioral patterns...."

EVE is further complemented by Snort3 and SnortML engines, which use AI to detect zero-day exploits without relying on traditional signatures, offering proactive defense against emerging threats.

Supporting customers through migrations

The Forrester report also states, "Reference customers praise Cisco's support, especially during migrations from legacy appliances."

At Cisco, we not only pride ourselves on taking a platform-based approach to security, but also on our ability to meet customers where they are in their security journey. We support them as they transition from legacy systems while limiting disruption to the business or customer experience. We know that customers are not only looking for vendors, but partners.

Cisco: The only Enterprise Firewall Solutions leader to also be named a leader in The Forrester Wave?: Microsegmentation Solutions, Q3 2024

While we are incredibly excited to be named a Leader in Enterprise Firewall Solutions, we are equally ecstatic about what we feel this says about how we are addressing segmentation holistically. That's because we've taken the concept of a firewall for more traditional network boundaries and applied it in novel ways to embed security controls at every critical interaction point. In other words, it's not about "a firewall," but "firewalling."

With innovations like Hypershield, which converges network and application security tools, and the intent-driven policy framework that leverages predictive AI for enhanced threat response, Cisco is uniquely positioned to provide end-to-end security from the network all the way down to the process on a host. By abstracting policy management from device configurations and enabling seamless integration with third-party solutions, Cisco offers a unified security approach that adapts to the evolving needs of modern enterprises.

Learn more

 Listen: there's way more detail and fantastic analysis in the full Forrester report that I won't get into. So, don't take my word for it. Check it out for yourself.

Or, learn more about Cisco's firewall and other security solutions.

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