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Matthew DeGrandis - PeerSpot reviewer
System Administrator at a financial services firm with 11-50 employees
Real User
It gives you visibility into what your users are doing on the Internet
Pros and Cons
  • "NGIPS lets you map web requests to a specific user to determine who is downloading files and what they are accessing. You can use it to identify users downloading malware or track time wasters using Facebook or something like that. It gives you visibility into what your users are doing on the Internet."
  • "The price is a little high. It's hard to find solutions that are easy on the budget and strike a balance between affordability and features."

What is our primary use case?

We have NGIPS deployed at the edge and use it to filter the point of presence to the Internet or other offices.

What is most valuable?

NGIPS lets you map web requests to a specific user to determine who is downloading files and what they are accessing. You can use it to identify users downloading malware or track time wasters using Facebook or something like that. It gives you visibility into what your users are doing on the Internet. 

What needs improvement?

The price is a little high. It's hard to find solutions that are easy on the budget and strike a balance between affordability and features.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used NGIPS since 2015.

Buyer's Guide
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

NGIPS is quite stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

NGIPS is scalable. It has well-defined stacks for how much traffic it can handle. You can fully inspect traffic or use SSL decryption.

How are customer service and support?

I rate Cisco support 10 out of 10. We get everything we need from them. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

I rate NGIPS nine out of 10 for ease of setup. The process was smooth and straightforward. After deployment, it requires some maintenance like updates and creating or changing the policies. We have more than a hundred policy categories now. 

What about the implementation team?

We had help from professional services.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco NGIPS nine out of 10. We always find stuff that could be done better or that we want more of. For example, we've had some issues creating specific rules, and it's challenging to create exceptions or tweak the rules as your business evolves. It's tricky to order the rules to follow the business policies you want. You have to balance security with getting work done. You need to watch how many rules you make because you can get overwhelmed.

Disclosure: My company does not have 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
Offers defense mechanism and helps with intrusion prevention but performance needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "I like the way the tool pushes the packets from the node level."
  • "Cisco NGIPS' performance could be better."

What is our primary use case?

Cisco NGIPS offers defense mechanism and intrusion prevention for your environment. 

What is most valuable?

I like the way the tool pushes the packets from the node level. 

What needs improvement?

Cisco NGIPS' performance could be better. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with the product for 24 years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco NGIPS is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool is scalable. My company has over 2000  users for the product. 

How was the initial setup?

The tool's deployment is not straightforward. You need a technical and competent person to do it. A four to five-member technical team can handle its deployment and maintenance. 

What was our ROI?

The tool's ROI is good. 

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

The tool's licensing costs are yearly. 

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco NGIPS a ten out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS)
October 2025
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2025.
871,358 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Cyber Security at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
A cybersecurity solution that helps to identify anomalies that come from internal or external networks
Pros and Cons
  • "We use the solution for cybersecurity purposes. The tool helps us to identify anomalies that come from internal or external networks."
  • "The attack patterns and payloads go undetected in Cisco. We would like to see a new solution with more effective detection of attack patterns. There should be more data analyzing patterns as well which provides useful information."

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for cybersecurity purposes. The tool helps us to identify anomalies that come from internal or external networks. 

What needs improvement?

The attack patterns and payloads go undetected in Cisco. We would like to see a new solution with more effective detection of attack patterns. There should be more data analyzing patterns as well which provides useful information. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the product for two years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

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

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The tool's scalability is not an issue. We have a lot of people using the product even in our subsidiaries. We have a couple of thousand users for the solution.

How are customer service and support?

We have residence engineers for support. We mainly use level two support. Cisco's support in the local region is up to the level. However, we have issue with country-level support.  

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

I use Darktrace simultaneously. 

How was the initial setup?

The product's setup was smooth and easy. The implementation was not a big deal and took two weeks to complete.

What about the implementation team?

A Cisco consultant helped us with the tool's implementation. They were competent, helpful, and confident. 

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

We get cut in price since we use other Cisco products. We have the whole bundle of Cisco solutions. 

What other advice do I have?

I would rate the product a six out of ten. The solution is easy to maintain. We are looking for a solution that is powered by AI which gives enhanced protection and detection. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
GlennCamilien - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cybersecurity Engineer at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees
Real User
The centralized management is helpful if you have multiple locations
Pros and Cons
  • "The IPS functionality is useful if you have offices all over the place. It's nice to have centralized management instead of going to a separate ASA or FirePOWER device."
  • "The biggest problem with most Cisco products is that the interface is lagging behind the competition. The user interface could be updated and improved."

What is our primary use case?

I am currently working with Cisco NGIPS at home as an IPS device, so I can see what's hitting the firewall and look at the logs. I'm using it as a learning environment. 

What is most valuable?

The IPS functionality is useful if you have offices all over the place. It's nice to have centralized management instead of going to a separate ASA or FirePOWER device. 

What needs improvement?

The biggest problem with most Cisco products is that the interface is lagging behind the competition. The user interface could be updated and improved.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco NGIPS is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cisco NGIPS is highly scalable. We use it to cover 15 offices.

How was the initial setup?

It requires some background in IPS and IT security to fully understand it, so it is somewhat complex to deploy.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco NGIPS eight out of 10. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Karthik Venkataraman - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at Velocis Systems
Real User
Top 5
A solution with an understandable graphical user interface with great security
Pros and Cons
  • "It is salable and technically sound."
  • "The integration can be more secure."

What is our primary use case?

We predominantly use this solution to place the perimeter on the firewall, which helps us filter out inbound and outbound traffic.

Cisco is tightly engaged with threat defence called Talos, which has more threat intelligence. In addition, they are dedicated to working on updating their IPS signatures.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for almost five years. It is deployed both on-premises and cloud, and we are using the latest version, Cisco 12.X.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution. We have over 100 clients.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is sound and clear.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is pretty straightforward, and it's like a plug-and-play. The graphical user interface is understandable, and their documentations are clear. In addition, they have an SOP document that can be used as a guide.

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

There is an annual licensing cost. It is not a cheap solution, but it's cost-effective. Aside from costs, Cisco NGIPS provides great security. Cisco is providing more discounts to its end customers to survive in the security market.

What other advice do I have?

I rate this solution a ten out of ten. I would recommend this solution. When you compare Cisco NGIPS to other solutions, it is salable and technically sound. Other solutions have very limited services and threat intelligence.

Regarding additional features, they should speed up their technology to the market because, compared with other security vendors, Cisco is a little behind on the Gartner and technical front. In addition, the integration can be more secure.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
AdamBrenner - PeerSpot reviewer
Solutions Architect at NTT Global Networks Incorporated
MSP
Offers a cheap way of terminating internet circuits so that you don't use expensive routers but GUI needs improvement
Pros and Cons
  • "The cost is the most valuable feature."
  • "The GUI could be improved. The pain point is really only focused toward the security engineer who configures it and the operation engineer who manages it."

What is our primary use case?

It's a cheap way of terminating internet circuits so that you don't use expensive routers.

It's mainly deployed on-premises.

What is most valuable?

The cost is the most valuable feature.

What needs improvement?

The GUI could be improved. The pain point is really only focused toward the security engineer who configures it and the operation engineer who manages it. Those are the guys that have the pain points because the GUI is so bad.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's not scalable on a single device. If you need to scale up, you have to buy another one.

For any of these devices, this is the irritating part. A customer comes to me and says, "I need a gig of internet access at a location." If I see a Firepower that handles up to a gig, I'm not buying it because I can't scale. If the customer comes back to me six months later and says, "We're packing that gig, and I need two gigs," then he's going to get angry at me for undersizing his firewall, so I need to go to a four gig model. 

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

If I absolutely need to lock down somebody's network in the most secure manner, I'm going to use Palo Alto.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was extremely complex for a firewall that did nothing but accept traffic and filter it. It provides IPS, IDS, and it provides URL filtering, which isn't as good. The categorization leaves a bit to be desired. That leaves you to do extensive whitelist blacklisting.

What was our ROI?

I would rate the ROI 2 out of 5. You have to take into account the number of hours you pay an engineer to set it up and the number of hours you have to pay an engineer to manage it. You're spending more money on engineering and less money on a firewall. So, your return on investment is going to take significantly longer than with a competitor.

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

I would rate the pricing 4 out of 5.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate this solution 4 out of 10.

Take into account how long it's going to take you to perfect the configuration and how long it's going to take you to find a problem before you buy this product.

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. Partner
PeerSpot user
Carlos Bracamonte - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Support Engineer at Amadeus
MSP
Good protection, reliable and responsive support
Pros and Cons
  • "The URL filtering feature and the new locations feature are both valuable additions to the solution."
  • "While the Management GUI and FMC could be improved, the devices themselves function well."

What is our primary use case?

Some of our customers are having DDOS attacks and ransomware attacks.

How has it helped my organization?

Earlier in July 2019, I noted that there was an attack. To mitigate future attacks from the ransomware in Columbia Bank and other similar situations, we at Cisco Talent, which is responsible for security intelligence, provided updated security rules. We offered intrusion policies and codes through signatures to help overcome such situations.

What is most valuable?

It's a good solution.

The solution is not that bad. Next-generation firewalls work from my experience, they work. 

The URL filtering feature and the new locations feature are both valuable additions to the solution.

What needs improvement?

While the Management GUI and FMC could be improved, the devices themselves function well.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco NGIPS for more than five years.

I provided support for version 6.4, but in our company, we do have Firepower version 7.0.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco NGIPS is a stable solution.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco has great support.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Cisco NGIPS an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Senior Network Security Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 10
Makes data more secure with separate IPSec tunnels
Pros and Cons
  • "NGIPS' best feature is the separate IPSec tunnels, which makes the user's data more secure if they want to access it privately."
  • "NGIPS' GUI interface could be improved and made more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

I primarily use NGIPS as perimeter security firewall devices to filter traffic.

What is most valuable?

NGIPS' best feature is the separate IPSec tunnels, which makes the user's data more secure if they want to access it privately.

What needs improvement?

NGIPS' GUI interface could be improved and made more user-friendly, especially in comparison to Palo Alto's Next-Generation Firewall.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using NGIPS for around five years.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is complex and requires someone with a background in firewalls to set it up. Inexperienced users will find it very difficult to set up. For experienced users, deployment will take around forty-five minutes. I would rate the setup process five out of ten.

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

NGIPS is expensive.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend NGIPS to other users, but only as a second choice behind Palo Alto. I would give NGIPS a rating of eight 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?

Microsoft Azure
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Cisco Secure IPS (NGIPS) Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.