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Pre Sales Manager at Logix
Real User
Top 20
A hybrid solution for email security that filters spam emails that needs to improve its UI
Pros and Cons
  • "The strong point of the solution is that we hardly get any spam emails because of Cisco Secure Email."
  • "Scalability has certain shortcomings and needs to be improved because there are service providers who provide better scalability.v"

What is our primary use case?

The product is used for email security. We have around forty boxes of Cisco and cater to around four million users.

What is most valuable?

The strong point of the solution is that we hardly get any spam emails because of Cisco Secure Email. It has been a long time since I saw a spam email in my inbox.

What needs improvement?

Scalability has certain shortcomings and needs to be improved because there are service providers who provide better scalability.

Our company constantly checks out what the solution needs to improve. We need to be updated with what is available in the market and which application performs better.

The solution's UI needs little tweaking because most customers find it to be a very detailed and technically designed UI. If a person does not know email security or how Cisco devices work, he cannot manage it.

Other solutions are user-friendly. Even if the admin has a basic knowledge of managing the services, he can use them.

Cisco Secure Email needs to work on the security part, but it also needs to work on UI since it makes part of the entire solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Secure Email since 2010. My company is an email security service provider. I am using the solution's latest version.

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Secure Email
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Email. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

I rate the solution's stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have four million users using the solution. In India, we are a premium service provider of Cisco Secure Email catering to many institutions.

I rate the solution's scalability a six out of ten.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco's technical support is good. I rate the technical support an eight and a half out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We have used Sophos and Mimecast before in our company.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is very straightforward, but a new person needs to be trained to use this solution.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution has very good pricing.

I rate the pricing a ten out of ten on a scale where one means it is less cost-effective, and ten means it is the most cost-effective solution.

What other advice do I have?

I recommend Cisco Secure Email to those planning to use it.

Around 40 administrators are required for maintenance.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
PeerSpot user
ChrisWanyoike - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Infrastructure Specialist at Central-Bank-Kenya
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
A cloud security solution for endpoint and greymail protection

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for endpoint protection, including email protection, such as antivirus, anti-phishing, content filtering, outbreak filtering, and greymail protection.

What is most valuable?

An important feature is retrospective analysis, which allows the solution to retrieve emails sent even a week ago, even if they have already been delivered. This is done by analyzing emails for malicious content after they have been sent.

What needs improvement?

Cisco Secure Email focuses on cloud-based threat intelligence and endpoint security. The current version improves on the on-premises version by integrating Threat Grid and Advanced Malware Protection, which helps users quickly identify malicious emails.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable. We never had issues. If everything is configured right, it's something you can easily forget about.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is scalable.

1300 users are using this solution.

How are customer service and support?

We used it once when the appliance was acting up and then realized that an upgrade was needed. We follow up on the requirements upgrades and patching. It doesn't require much patching.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

Cisco Secure Email can be integrated in-house, but we are too busy. Therefore, we have decided to use an integrator.

What was our ROI?

Even though Cisco Secure Email is not cheap, it offers a good return on investment. Cisco needs to ensure that its products are functional and have a long support timeline.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The solution is not cheap.

What other advice do I have?

Cisco Secure Email is a fast data service. Because of this, most of its features are already pre-configured. All clients need to do is customize and tailor the service to their specific use cases.

I would recommend anyone using the on-premise ports move to the cloud.

Overall, I rate the solution a ten out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Secure Email
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Email. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,767 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
Security Technician at Mercadona
Real User
Very configurable technology that combines AMP, Threat Grid, and Sandboxing
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution is very configurable. It has enabled us to configure some specific filters to stop emails that general configurations didn't stop. It's a powerful solution. It can analyze a lot of emails simultaneously, with no problems of capacity or system load."
  • "They can do it better with web links, with the URLs. They have a technology called Outbreak but it doesn't work as well as we would like."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it as our email firewall. It's our first line of email defense.

How has it helped my organization?

Overall, the ease of migration to Cisco's cloud email security from the on-prem solution was a positive experience. We are very happy with the change. It makes security easy. The cloud solution is doing a great job. We are stopping more emails, and in a better way, than we did in the past. It's also not stopping as many good emails, but I think this is because Talos has gotten better, rather than something to do with the cloud technology. But the numbers over the past year are significantly better compared to the past.

What is most valuable?

We like 

  • AMP
  • Threat Grid
  • Sandboxing

The spam protection is also very good and the solution is very configurable. It has enabled us to configure some specific filters to stop emails that general configurations didn't stop. 

It's a powerful solution. It can analyze a lot of emails simultaneously, with no problems in terms of capacity or system load. It seems that machines on the cloud are more powerful than the ones that we had, in the legacy solution, on-premises.

What needs improvement?

They can do it better with web links, with the URLs. They have a technology called Outbreak but it doesn't work as well as we would like. It does have a new feature called Cloud URL Analysis, but we can see enough information about detection, information that helps us to properly configure the technology.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the cloud solution for one year, but before that we were using it on-premises for three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's very stable. We haven't had any issues with the stability. It hasn't gone down, and it has managed the flow of our email volume really well.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is excellent. They are proactive. They are monitoring things and helping us every step of the way. The technical support is at an excellent level.

How was the initial setup?

The migration to the cloud email security was complex because we have a lot of customization. We needed to reevaluate some of the policies that we were applying via the email security. But technically we had more difficulty previously because we didn't have the premium support. We had to read a lot of documentation and experiment. Now, with the premier support, it's easier.

We re-created everything in the cloud solution. We re-evaluated everything when we migrated. There were some things we didn't migrate, while some new things were created.

It took us nearly one year for all the integrations and the migration to be complete, from the initial evaluation of the new product to the end of the migration to CSE, when it assumed all the email traffic for our organization. We didn't have any particular problems with downtime during the migration. That time includes analyzing, configuring, and improving things in production.

Our team that works directly with Secure Email consists of five people who are configuring the tool.

What about the implementation team?

We used consulting from Cisco the whole time during our migration. With the premium support we now have one person who knows our configuration, our needs, and who can help us more than in the past when we didn't have that level of support.

What was our ROI?

ROI is difficult to determine. We think we have seen ROI, but we need to have an incident to evaluate whether the investment has really paid off. But no incidents means it's a good investment.

We haven't saved money by moving from on-prem to the cloud email security because we acquired the premium support. But we are happy with it, as they help us not only with issues that have happened, but also with configuration and with learning the technology. This is a very important factor, which we value.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco Secure Email and the support are priced well. It's not cheap, but there are other solutions that offer less and cost so much. For example, Microsoft is more expensive than Cisco.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We know there are some solutions that have a higher level of protection for email, but we're very happy with the price of this one and with the way it is working.

We have Microsoft email security too, but not as the first line of defense. Microsoft's email security has its advantages but it is less secure, less configurable, and less powerful than Cisco's solution.

What other advice do I have?

It's a great solution for big enterprises that need a higher level of security than is offered by Microsoft solutions. Other solutions are targeted at smaller enterprises, that are without a security administrator and without people monitoring and supervising the technology. But for a big enterprise, Cisco Secure Email is a great option.

We have integrated the solution with SecureX and Threat Grid, and we already had Talos, of course. The Sandboxing is needed, it's a basic functionality for us. As for the rest of the integrations, they are less important. We integrate with some external feeds, but Talos is good enough for the technology not to need additional feeds.

When migrating from on-prem to the cloud email security, the interfaces are basically the same. The new interface was developed only for the cloud solution, but the classic interface, when it comes to the configuration of the machine, is basically the same for both the on-premises and cloud solutions.

Overall, it's a very configurable technology. We think it has all the weapons we need to fight against threats.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Email Adminstrator at Merchants Capital Resources, Inc.
Real User
Filters out links and spam, stopping junking from getting through
Pros and Cons
  • "There is a huge return compared to if we didn't have a gateway appliance, as far as blocking malicious emails."
  • "I use the search all the time. Sometimes, it is hard to search for things and things are hard to find. People come to me all the time, saying, "This email didn't get through." Then, I go searching and don't find it on the first search. You have to think about alternative searches. I don't know if there is an easier way that they could help to find things. I don't know how they could simplify it, because now everybody else is using the cloud and everything is coming from Office 365, or whatever. It is just not the same environment from years ago where everybody had their own server and you could search easier."

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for our email gateway security for all our inbound and outbound email. We use a lot of the URL filtering and spam filtering as well as the dictionaries, e.g., if they try to spoof employee names.

How has it helped my organization?

We didn't have an email gateway initially. As spam was ramping up, the junk was getting through. So, we needed a gateway. We then worked with a local company who sold us this product and some training as well as how to get it up and running, configuring it. Over the years, they have been constantly changing it.

What is most valuable?

We use a lot of their search features to search for emails that have come through. Our end users come through it. They say, "This didn't email didn't arrive," or "How did this email get through?" So, I am constantly searching through message tracing and using that all the time.

What needs improvement?

I use the search all the time. Sometimes, it is hard to search for things and things are hard to find. People come to me all the time, saying, "This email didn't get through." Then, I go searching and don't find it on the first search. You have to think about alternative searches. I don't know if there is an easier way that they could help to find things. I don't know how they could simplify it, because now everybody else is using the cloud and everything is coming from Office 365, or whatever. It is just not the same environment from years ago where everybody had their own server and you could search easier.

When you run a trace and you are in the cloud, it's harder. You run a trace and it generates trace results. I haven't figured out how to get those off of the cloud. I don't know if there is a path to open up a ticket on that.

For how long have I used the solution?

Before it was purchased by Cisco, we had already been using IronPort since 2005 or earlier.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. We have never had any problems.

The way we are using it now, it does require maintenance. I decided to take a zero trust for URL links coming in emails or unknown links. Then, if there is a link that somebody wants to get through, then I have to add that to the list to allow it. So, there are some dictionaries and things to maintain the way we are running it now that we didn't have in the past. For many years, we got it running, then forgot about it. It just ran and ran. Now, I think it is just a different environment due to the level of phishing emails, etc. 

The way that we are running it now, there is more to maintain, like the dictionaries and the list of employees, so somebody doesn't spoof an employee's name. It takes maybe an hour or so a week to update the dictionaries and things like that. 

Right now, I'm the only one maintaining it.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is good. It seems like it still has capacity in the cloud. It is hard to tell in the cloud. However, the ones that we had on-prem were running real close to their limit for whatever reason: memory swapping and CPU utilization. So, we had to do something there. Right now, it seems like there is capacity/room to grow.

The solution protects 450 users. We plan to gradually increase users.

How are customer service and technical support?

They have always been good when helping with problems. They are responsive and always come up with an answer.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We migrated from Cisco ESA to Cisco Cloud Email Security. 

The appliances were getting close to the end of life. They were using a lot of CPU, so it was time to do something with them. IT management seems to be going more to the cloud now, so it made sense to go to the Cisco Cloud solution. The machines that we had on-prem were really slow. For whatever reason, they were getting real slow. When we went to the cloud, we got away from that problem.

How was the initial setup?

For the initial deployment, we might have spent a week getting it up and running. Then, we went for a day or two to training.

There wasn't really any downtime involved during the migration from our on-prem to Cisco Cloud Email Security, which was important to us. We didn't want to interrupt email flow. So, we prepared it, then there was a cutover. 

The migration from the vendor’s on-prem to Cloud Email Security wasn't too difficult.

What about the implementation team?

A few times, we needed Cisco's expertise in the migration process to solve some problems for free. Because it is in the cloud, you can't get to the command line interface to access and download/upload files. So, I had to rely on Cisco for that.

What was our ROI?

There is a huge return compared to if we didn't have a gateway appliance, as far as blocking malicious emails.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The licensing was all transferred. A fair amount of the configuration had to be done by hand. We didn't transfer the people safe list and block lists. There were a number of things that we didn't transfer because they were in the cloud. It was a matter of going through and reconfiguring.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The familiar user interface was important in our decision to migrate from Cisco’s on-prem to Cloud Email Security. We have a lot of other projects going on. Being able to migrate to something that we were already familiar with versus migrating to Proofpoint or something else was a major decision factor. I didn't have to invest that much time, resources, and learning in a whole new product.

If you compare it over Proofpoint, it was a big savings. It was very competitive. It saved us from buying new appliances. Though, I don't know that would have been a big expense, because I didn't do a cost analysis of staying on-prem and replacing the appliances. We were more comparing the solution to Proofpoint, and the cost was considerably less than Proofpoint. It was already in place and working for us on-prem. So, I didn't want to move to Proofpoint because there would have been much more to learn.

Some of the things that we were doing in Cisco, we can't do it the same way in Proofpoint, from as much as I have looked at it. I know there is a difference. They have different solutions. They have some solutions that aren't configurable at all, such as, the lower price ones. They have another one where you are just like a tenant and everybody gets the same thing, then for it to be customizable, it is a lot more expensive. In orders of magnitude, it is more expensive than Cisco, which didn't make sense. With all the little tweaks and customizations that we're doing, I couldn't see how to do that based on the time I spent looking at Proofpoint. It might be doable, but I didn't figure out how to do it. So, I think Cisco is a little more configurable than Proofpoint for tweaking. I could be wrong, but that is my impression.

What other advice do I have?

There wasn't much of a learning curve involved in migrating from Cisco’s on-prem to Cloud Email Security because they are very similar. There were just a few things that were different.

It is a good product. Be prepared to invest time in learning it, like anything. You need to have somebody who is a key administrator, like any enterprise-level product that you would bring in. Even if you will have Salesforce or whatever, you need to have an administrator who knows how to keep it running.

Email threats just keep getting worse and worse, so you need to keep on your toes.

I would rate this solution as a nine (out of 10).

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Hannes Johnsson - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
Video Review
Real User
Top 10
Good support, perfect stability, and many out-of-the-box filters
Pros and Cons
  • "There are a lot of filters for scam emails and things like that work out of the box. You can also use the antivirus features. I like its features."
  • "Cisco Secure Email can be improved from the administrator's point of view. Usually, you have to work with different areas, and they can try to make it easy for the administrator to use different functions."

What is our primary use case?

We have it for email security. We use it for some security features to set up emails.

How has it helped my organization?

Cisco Secure Email has helped free up our IT staff for other projects because the product is so stable, and you don't have to spend so much time with the administration of the product. You free up time because you don't need to set up so many functions. Some of the functions are out of the box, and they just work.

What is most valuable?

There are a lot of filters for scam emails and things like that work out of the box. You can also use the antivirus features. I like its features.

What needs improvement?

Cisco Secure Email can be improved from the administrator's point of view. Usually, you have to work with different areas, and they can try to make it easy for the administrator to use different functions.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Its stability is perfect. It's very good.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did grow out of the product, so we changed the product to a bigger box. It was the same installation and the same setup, so it was fine. We just replaced them with a larger box.

In terms of our environment setup, we have it set up in two data centers just for redundancy. We have about 1,200 people using it in the organization.

How are customer service and support?

I've been in contact with Cisco Support a few times regarding questions, and I've had a very good experience with their support. They have been able to answer my questions directly, and they replied fast, so it's very good. Regarding Cisco Secure Email, I'd rate their support a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When I first started at the company, the product was already there. That was my first experience with the product, but I liked the product, and I thought it was very stable and working well.

How was the initial setup?

I've been involved in the lifecycle management of it and upgrading it, so I have experience with that. It has worked well with no impact on production or something like that.

The upgrade process is quite straightforward. You just have to ensure that you have everything prepared for the upgrade.

What about the implementation team?

It was Cygate in Sweden from whom we bought the product. They were resellers for Cisco, but we installed it ourselves.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't have the insights into it, but compared to different products, it seems to have a medium level of pricing.

What other advice do I have?

To those evaluating Cisco Secure Email, I'd advise thinking about what do you need and what is most important for your company in terms of stability and the administration area.

Based on my experience, I'd rate Cisco Secure Email a nine out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1626717 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security / Solution Architect at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Don't need to invest in physical hardware, location, physical connections, and an on-premise data center
Pros and Cons
  • "The added value of it is that every migration to a new version is initiated by the Cisco version itself, so that is a bunch of work that you don't have to do on the Cisco ESA system on-premise. As it becomes a safe platform, you don't need to invest anything in your own data center or in your upgrade path."
  • "We have Microsoft and we have the E5 licenses, they have more EDR responses on certain emails. That's something that Cisco ESA on the cloud doesn't have. They don't do anything about MITRE attacks. They only detect if there is a malicious email or a threat and they remove it."

What is our primary use case?

We migrated from Cisco ESA to Cisco CES, we went from the on-premise solution to the cloud solution.

Our primary use case is for email security. Every email is scanned by an antivirus engine and every attachment is also sandboxed before it gets back to the real person. This is an additional Cisco CES module.

On top of this module, we have also subscribed for the Cisco Cloud Secure Email Encryption Service (CRES).

Our other use cases are all about the functionality of the Cisco Email. We are using it as a relaying system for incoming and outcoming mail. External exposed webservices are using the Cisco CES in order to send mails out as our domains.

Another feature we use is the possibility to combine the Cisco CRES together with Cisco CES. All our documents are labelled and are obliged to be sent either through TLS (encrypted channel) or either through Cisco CRES (encrypted mail) for GDPR-compliancy. If the destination domain doesn't support TLS, it is sent by Cisco CRES, otherwise we use TLS. This conditional check isn't (yet) available at Microsoft.

How has it helped my organization?

We already used this system on-premise. So there is no real difference except for the encryption plugin that is used. That's beneficial value. You also don't need to invest in physical hardware, location, and physical connections, and an on-premise data center.

The added value of it is that every migration to a new version is initiated by the Cisco personnel, so that is a bunch of work that you don't have to do on the Cisco ESA system on-premise. As it becomes a SAAS-platform, you don't need to invest anything in your own data center or in your upgrade path. 

There was no downtime involved in the migration from Cisco's on-premise to the Cloud Secure Email. It was important to have this business continuity going on and not to lose any emails. We have implemented everything first in a test environment. We had the test Cisco CES in the cloud together with the test exchange system and so forth. Such a smooth transition was possible because we could test everything in a test environment.

If you have the knowledge of the Cisco on-premise solution, it was more like a copy-paste of the settings on the Cisco cloud solution. So the learning curve is rather low if you have the knowledge already of the Cisco system on-premise.

The pricing is more or less the same, but you have to take into consideration all the work that the people have to do. If they need to patch the new system, if they need to do the patching cycle on the ESA itself, and so forth, that's where the money goes.

It's not out-of-pocket money that you gain, but you gain time from people to focus on other systems.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable features of the Cisco ESA have to do with the intelligence they provide us. They respond quickly to any phishing attacks and threats on the system. 

I also like the pay module, sandbox, and attachments.

The vendor's free migration services ensure that your on premise licenses are transferred when you migrate. It's just a matter of money at that moment. It's good to know that they take into account your old key and give you the new keys on the new machine.

What needs improvement?

We have Microsoft and we have the E5 licenses, they have more EDR responses on certain emails. That's something that Cisco ESA on the cloud doesn't have. They don't do anything about MITRE attacks. They only detect if there is a malicious email or a threat and they remove it.

If there is an email that has passed through, there is no way to have a global system delete that email from every mailbox. You have to look up the malicious files yourself.

With Microsoft, you can look it up, you can hunt for that in their compliance dashboard. You can hunt that email and then delete that email in one step. That's something that Cisco doesn't have.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Secure Email for more than ten years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution has proven that it's very stable. I only recall three real problems with the system. And I've been working at the same company for 15 to 16 years. It is very stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The scalability is fine. 

We have around 1500 users. 

There are two system engineers that support it right now.

Emails grow in numbers. So sometimes we need to alter our system to hold that amount of emails or to grab all those emails and transfer them. 

How are customer service and support?

I don't think we have opened a call at Cisco itself. For the encryption plugin, we opened several support tickets for the implementation. Their support was helpful. It was more technical advice.

I would rate their support an eight out of ten. They are very responsive and they quickly come up with the right answer, which is important. I never give nine and 10. So sometimes they are, sometimes they come quick with responses, but within all the years, sometimes it takes a while until they find a good response. Like that book is something that took a while to find out.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was simple and easy. You open one screen of your on-premise Cisco ESA configuration and you copy-paste it to the other screen of your Cisco ESA system in the cloud. So the transition was very easy.

It took around one month to implement. 

The strategy was to get rid of the physical servers and move to the cloud.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with Cameo to do the integration.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is okay. There are no additional charges. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at some competitors, like Proofpoint but in comparison, we chose Cisco ESA because we kept the same technology. We knew that the migration path would be less effort than the migration part if we went to another solution or Barracuda.  

Proofpoint was very good at creating general DLP policies, in that you could create policies and you apply them on different platforms, like Teams.

Cisco is a state-of-the-art product. I think Microsoft is catching up really quickly when you take the E5 license builder with it. I think Microsoft can take over the competition from Cisco but it could take a while.

What other advice do I have?

It's a very mature product.

I would rate it a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Ahmed  Helmy - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Director, Business Development & Sales Operations at connect professional services
Reseller
Top 5Leaderboard
A stable and easy-to-deploy tool that provides good integrations and blocks spam emails
Pros and Cons
  • "The product blocks spam emails."
  • "The scalability must be improved."

What is our primary use case?

Our customers use the solution as an email security tool.

What is most valuable?

The product blocks spam emails.

What needs improvement?

The scalability must be improved. The product is a bit traditional. There are many vendors in the market. A customer might not always choose Cisco.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been reselling the solution since 2010.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s stability an eight out of ten.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I rate the tool’s scalability a seven out of ten. Our customers are medium and enterprise-level businesses.

How was the initial setup?

I rate the ease of setup a seven or eight out of ten. The deployments takes one to two weeks.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I rate the product a seven out of ten on a scale where one is cheap and ten is expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Sometimes, customers choose Forcepoint or Barracuda. Usually, if the customers have a Cisco setup, they choose Cisco Secure Email.

What other advice do I have?

Cisco is an integrated solution. Overall, I rate the product an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
reviewer1052493 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Email Engineer at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
The most valuable feature is the policies or rules that you can put on it
Pros and Cons
  • "At one point, there was a zero-day attack. The Cisco appliance detected it and stopped it, helping us out. We avoided the attack and potential damage."
  • "I would like them to add some clustering or high availability features."

What is our primary use case?

It is just another level of protection that we use, as far as email is concerned. We use it for different policies or as another scanning engine, e.g., on the desktop or for data coming through another email gateway.

How has it helped my organization?

At one point, there was a zero-day attack. The Cisco appliance detected it and stopped it, helping us out. We avoided the attack and potential damage.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the policies or rules that you can put on it. This definitely helps with routing specific things to different destinations within our organization, or even potentially blocking when something is coming in and out, to where you can't do this on an email server or on our other email gateway. It's just not possible.

What needs improvement?

On their roapmap, they are looking to integrate with different cloud features, like Office 365.

I would like them to add some clustering or high availability features.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is very stable. I haven't had any issues with memory or CPU. I haven't had any unstable performances from any of the appliances. Initially, we had physical appliances, then we went and upgraded to virtual appliances at some point. However, even the physical appliances were pretty stable.

I did run into one issue at one time where I had to shut something off. It was a bug, but being down for an hour or two is just two costly for our firm.

Deployment and maintenance is handled by two people (email engineers).

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good. We have four appliances total clustered, two in one data center and two in the other. The ability to increase is definitely doable, and it's helpful if you need to do that.

We are a legal firm with close to 2000 employees.

How are customer service and technical support?

Technical support is definitely good. The turnaround time to speak to someone is very good, as well.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We had another appliance (Axway MailGate) and switched because it was outdated. Also, their support model wasn't that great. They were difficult to get a hold of after six or seven in the evening.

How was the initial setup?

The initial product setup was easy. However, it was a bit more complex on our side because of some of the rules that we had set up on a previous appliance, which was not Cisco. Trying to match some of those to Cisco was a little complex. We had some consultants help us out with that. Overall, it wasn't too bad.

The deployment took three to five days.

What about the implementation team?

We worked with a partner consulting firm, Presidio, who very useful and helpful.

We did a proof of concept first off, then did a hard cut over on the weekend.

What was our ROI?

For what you get for the product, the support, and the overall stability, it is definitely a good return on investment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

We do annual licensing for Cisco Secure Email Gateway and SMA together, and possibly SmartNet support. Packaged together, the cost is just under $38,000.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at two or three different vendors. One of the solutions that we looked at was a virtual Linux-based appliance. We did evaluate that and a proof of concept around it. However, it wasn't as robust as Cisco, as far as features and high availability.

What other advice do I have?

Give it a chance. If you can do a proof of concept somehow to rate it against other competitors which are out there, look into it because it is a good product.

I haven't upgraded to version 12 yet.

Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Secure Email Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Secure Email Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.