Security: Cisco ASA Vs Cisco FTD

Cisco Security Portfolio
Cisco ASA Vs Cisco FTD

As most of you know about the Cisco Security portfolio and the Firewalls offered by Cisco. Today we are going to talk about the difference between Cisco ASA and Cisco FTD.

Although Cisco offers both Cisco ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance) and Cisco FTD (Firepower Threat Defense) as network security options, there are some sign

Cisco ASA (Adaptive Security Appliance)Firewall

A firewall and VPN system with a long history, Cisco ASA is regarded as a legacy product. Its main goals are to offer fundamental firewall functionality and VPN connectivity.

Fig 1.1- Cisco ASA design

Firewall: Cisco ASA has firewall features such as stateful and deep-packet inspection to help guard against unauthorized access, malware, and other threats.

VPN: To offer secure remote access and site-to-site communication, Cisco ASA supports a number of VPN protocols, including IPsec, SSL, and L2TP.

IPS: An intrusion prevention system (IPS) is a feature of Cisco ASA that aids in the detection and prevention of threats including malware, worms, and denial-of-service assaults.

Content Security: To assist guard against dangerous email and online content, Cisco ASA includes content security technologies such as anti-spam, anti-virus, and anti-spyware.

Access Control: To assist guarantee that only authorized people and devices may access the network, Cisco ASA contains access control capabilities like as role-based access control and network admission control.

High Availability: To assist ensure that the firewall is always available, Cisco ASA provides high availability features like active/standby and active/active settings.

Management: For management and monitoring, Cisco ASA offers a user-friendly web-based interface, a command-line interface, and SNMP.

Multiple protocols are supported by Cisco ASA, including IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, and VLAN tagging.

Cisco FTD (Firepower Threat Defense)

Cisco FTD, on the other hand, is a more modern product that was developed as a result of Cisco's acquisition of Sourcefire's Firepower technology. In addition to typical firewall features, FTD is a next-generation firewall that includes sophisticated threat detection and response capabilities like as intrusion prevention and malware protection.

Fig 1.1- Cisco FTD design

Cisco FTD's firewall features include stateful and deep packet inspection to help defend against malware, illegal access, and other threats.

Advanced Threat Detection and Response: To help identify and stop known and unidentified threats, Cisco FTD offers advanced threat detection and response features including intrusion prevention, malware protection, and URL filtering.

Enhanced Malware Protection (AMP) and Advanced Malware Protection for Endpoints are two examples of advanced security technologies offered by Cisco FTD.

Access Control: To assist guarantee that only authorized people and devices may access the network, Cisco FTD offers access control capabilities such role-based access control and network admission control.

Cisco FTD supports a number of VPN protocols, including as IPsec, SSL, and L2TP, to offer secure site-to-site communication and remote access.

Cisco FTD offers sophisticated security intelligence, including threat intelligence feeds and the capacity to connect to Cisco's Talos threat intelligence platform.

Management: For management and monitoring, Cisco FTD offers both a user-friendly web-based interface and a command-line interface.

Cloud-based Management: Using the Cisco Defense Orchestrator, Cisco FTD enables cloud-based management, enabling you to administer and monitor your FTD devices from any location (CDO)

Multiple protocols are supported by Cisco FTD, including IPv4, IPv6, MPLS, and VLAN tagging.

Conclusion

In summary, Cisco ASA is a historical firewall solution with basic firewall and VPN capability, whereas Cisco FTD is a next-generation firewall with sophisticated threat detection and response capabilities in addition to standard firewall functionality.