Cisco Umbrella Reviews

The first thing that I found most valuable is that there is much differentiation within the licensing so if anyone wants DNS security from the DNS security log, we are there already, and if anyone wants to go to a secure internet gateway, that is also available. We can get the integrated cloud DLP license keys. That is a good benefit with Cisco Umbrella. You can get a complete solution in a single licensing.

Additionally, the cloud firewall is available to integrate if you want. Also, you can create side to side within everything in the cloud.

Right now there are modules just like cloud DLP that are implemented very well. You can just log onto the site, upload and download with the multiple options that are available. That is a good option with Umbrella. Also, you can integrate it with a Cisco Meraki switch as a firewall. That is also a good benefit with Cisco Umbrella.

In terms of what can be improved, it should have more integrations with multiple end user OEMs.

Also, the Linux agent is a big challenge because multiple companies are going with Linux. There is no Linux right now for people working from home and they are looking for security which is not available via Linux. That needs to improve.

I have been using Cisco Umbrella for the last two years.

In terms of the stability, if you're talking about DNS Security, it is very stable. They recently launched Cloud DLP,  so I can't comment on that. We are now working with it, but I do not have too much experience. DNS security is a stable product. There is no issue with that.

Cisco Umbrella is a scalable product. That means, when you have 4,000 users you can take the license for 4,000 users. If they just have 1,500 or 2,000, you can go for that license. Also, on the lower level, if you want 10 licenses, that is also available. That's scalability.

Cisco's technical support is always number one compared to other OEMs.

Deployment and implementation are straightforward for anyone going for the basic certificate for networking, meaning CCNS or CCNP security. The implementation resources are readily available for it. We don't think Cisco has a difficult deployment. Umbrella is very easy. Everything is straightforward. There is no need to Google much for every feature because there is a tab where you can go and configure them. One thing I would like to improve in Umbrella is to have a Linux client available.

On a scale of one to then, I would rate Cisco Umbrella just an eight.

I would recommend it. If you have a Cisco environment, then I must recommend Cisco Umbrella if you have a Cisco Meraki or a Cisco Router solution. There is the option available to integrate and use the firewall, as well. You can deploy policies from the cloud.

Our primary use case is security at the DNS level. This solutions was suggested by our account manager at Insight. 

we didn't implement it in our environment because of the pricing concern. however, I am sure it would have done a great job considering my observations in the trail pack.

Threats never come close to your network with security at the DNS level. Like i said above, i used it for a very short time so I cannot comment on the what would've been valuable for us but I was pretty amazed by the wide variety of security features and reports on a single dashboard. Leveraging Custom API and reasons and visibility for each deep visibility for the network was something that caught my eye.

There should be a way to monitor traffic at the user level. I use Meraki Dashboard and Cisco Firepower to do this for different networks. I understand this tool monitors the network as a whole but adding that information will let us cut the cost for other tools. 

The product is pricey compared to Cisco Firepower.

It is a pretty good product for a small business.

DNS security used to be the main value for us. Looking forward, SASE-style use cases (the ability to connect to any endpoint, be it a corporate-managed device, or a privately managed device, to any SaaS service) seems to be the most important feature for the future, on top of DNS security.

Looking at the full umbrella suite in the light of SASE, Secure Access Service Edge, they are clearly lacking in the inline CASB. Any line cloud access security broker has an API-based cloud access security broker, which is called CloudLock, but they're lacking the inline components, which are able to intercept traffic.

An on-premise DLP solution or integration with an on-premise DLP solution would be a nice addition. Also, more broad operating system support for endpoints would be an advantage.

I have been using Cisco Umbrella for the last three years. 

Cisco Umbrella is absolutely stable. They put a lot of weight on the availability and reliability of the global footprint. So yes, they kind of set the standards for availability. 

Cisco Umbrella Is very easy to scale. 

I haven't been involved in providing support for it; however, I am not aware of any significant issues.

The initial setup was quite straightforward. 

Deployment depends on the number of features and the degree of integration you're looking for. Deployment can take anywhere from 30 seconds, simply to redirect your recursive DNS service, up to several days for a full-blown enterprise setup. So it depends on the use case.

The pricing varies. If you're just after DNS security, it's rather expensive. If you are, however, after replacing parts of your enterprise security infrastructure (by moving from a legacy on-premise, security-based approach, to a more cloud-based approach), then you can replace a whole bunch of classic security devices and solutions. In short, you can basically consolidate your security functions. I think it's worth the money.

I would definitely recommend Cisco Umbrella. Proof of concept is always the second step. The first step is coming up with your use cases. If Umbrella is the answer, what's the question? You should roadmap your immediate and long-term goals in terms of IT security, or information security. You should take into account your operational fitness for tackling the cloud as well, then pick the right features to suit your needs. This is all basically applicable to similar solutions. If you run into this with no plan, you're just shifting your existing problems.

On a scale from one to ten, I would give Cisco Umbrella a rating of eight.

We are a system integrator, and we implemented this solution for one of our clients in Morocco. It helps to protect the network against ransomware and phishing attacks. 

This solution integrated with eBay, and we use it to check statistics.

The most valuable features are the protection against ransomware and phishing.

This solution is easy to use.

This solution is difficult to configure.

I would like to see a graphical representation of the entire network. For example, the network topography that shows connections to the server, as well as the communication that is coming into and going out of Umbrella.

We have not seen any bugs, glitches, or crashes. It is a very nice solution.

Scaling this solution is easy once you have the licenses.

There are three people using this solution. They are network and system administrators, and the ECC.

This was the first solution that we implemented for our client.

The initial setup of this solution is not complex. It is easy to configure and use as a whole. The deployment took approximately one day, which involved configuring the access.

One person is enough for deployment and maintenance.

We had a consultant to assist with the deployment.

Licensing fees are paid on a yearly basis.

Depending on the needs of the client, we consider several solutions. I have worked with Symantec PGP, CyberArk, Cyberwatch, Skybox, and Fortinet.

This is a very important solution, especially if the client does not actually supervise the tool.

My advice for anybody implementing this solution is to make sure that it is configured properly for your network. Depending on your environment, you need to set up access for people who are both out of the office and out of the local network.

This is a very good solution and my clients are impressed with it.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

I do not know what the latest version is that is currently installed, but it is cloud-based monitoring so it is one of the most recent versions.  

The primary use case is for endpoint users who are not working on our office premises. They are remote employees who are roaming so they are not within our protected zone. They can be vulnerabilities if they are browsing content and there is malware included on those web sites. Umbrella allows this kind of monitoring on remote devices and we can block those sites. We can also block applications which we would like not to allow to be running in the organization.  

With Umbrella our primary use is that we can monitor the endpoints for external devices. We will protect the users from malware phishing through email and the websites they are browsing. Umbrella is a solution for things like DNS (Domain Name System) protection, filtering, and security.  

I think the one feature we are using that Umbrella provides that is the most valuable feature is the DNS security. It is used to watch all the traffic which we are routing through the endpoint and organization firewalls. The users and devices are diverted by our secure gateway which scans each and every DNS request. It notifies us if it is not safe and allows those that are. It is like an alarm center application near our firewall.  

In the way we are using the solution it would be good for us if they would do some simplification of the analytics. They need to improve this feature so they have analytics to show the content of the user activity. I would like there to be some more analytics provided so that we can see the application routing and additional specific information. Those kinds of analytics can prove to be helpful in our security efforts. For me, this is the only thing that could be improved in Cisco Umbrella. They already have so many features that it is hard to imagine what else they can add.  

I have been using Cisco Umbrella for two years.  

Ever since we started using this product last year, it has been stable. If any service is down, we can see on the dashboard whether all of the resources are online or not. If something is down because we are working on it for some reason, something could happen then. But in two years, I did not find any issues due to the product becoming unstable on its own.  

Right now, we are working as a startup and we have 13 members of the team who are using the Cisco Umbrella. They are using it directly during business hours with configurations and analysis and other maintenance and access. It is the product's job to watch all the traffic routing to data points throughout the nine hours as it is routed to pass through the Cisco Umbrella.  

But whenever other users are trying to access the network — even in the non-business hours — if they are using their office laptop, all the traffic will be routed through DNS security. Umbrella is protection for the company devices from websites that may do something like data attacks on remote laptops. It handles all of these requests no matter how many concurrent users we have.  

We will be adding DNS to all the endpoints. For this, we will update the Cisco Umbrella DNS software for all our data points to watch all the traffic that is going through the EndPoints. It seems it will be very scalable.  

I have not contacted the technical support, but I had a discussion with the sales and diagnostic people. The technical issues are mostly something I resolve on my own by looking at the documentation. But once, when I wanted to implement some tool for a new solution, I contacted the sales team and they asked me some questions about what exactly it was that I wanted to accomplish. After I answered the questions in the meeting with them, we came up with the solution and the process and put it to work. So the sales team knows the product well.  

Previously, in another organization, we used OpenDNS. That product was purchased by Cisco to be used as their product under the name of Umbrella. So I did not switch the product really, but the name and my company have changed.   

The initial setup is a simple process. If you build on-premises, the deployment will take half-an-hour. If you build on the cloud it is like 10 minutes. it could be even less than 10 minutes. It is really fast. It will take five minutes to sync to the endpoint, to the cloud, and to collect the data. The syncing is what takes the time.  

I have gone through the documents for Cisco Umbrella. So I have been deploying the product myself without the help of a technician and we are doing the implementation on our own.  

The only maintenance we do is we need to update the latest version through our version management software. We just update the agents on the endpoints.  

Because it is a cloud product, Cisco uses subscription models for the pricing. There are three subscription plans for Umbrella. They have a standard plan and also an enterprise plan and another one. The different plans cover different features and options for different sized organizations. It gives you the option to compare the subscription plans and get the coverage that you need.  

My only real advice to people considering Umbrella is that I can recommend this solution. On a scale from one to ten where one is the worst and ten is the best, I can rate Cisco Umbrella as a nine-out-of-ten.  

My customers would like to protect users in company and outside their companies.

Improves security through DNS visibility, which can block malware, phishing, C&C, etc.

It is easy to implement.

If I want to see which users access a website, I need an Active Directory registered on Umbrella's cloud.

No stability issues.

No scalability issues.

I would rate technical support as an eight out of 10.

We did not switch solutions. We just added an extra layer of defense.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The pricing is fair.

You can request an evaluation license.

No.

Deployment and management are easy.

It made web filtering and malware protection easy.

I think there is some room for improvement with regard to the Windows client. While providing great protection for roaming laptops, on occasion users in the office would get the "yellow triangle" showing up over their wifi connection. It would state that the users were not connected to the internet, when in fact they were. This caused a few gripes and was difficult to troubleshoot. Other than that, not much else.

Only other suggestion might have been a URL to automate requests when checking if a blocked site is in fact a valid block.

I have been using it for two years.

Deployment and scaling are very easy. The only issue was as mentioned.

Technical support is excellent, with quick responses.

iPrism was inline, did not scale, and not easy to manage.

Initial setup was easy; just forward your DNS.

An in-house team implemented it; it was pretty straightforward. Just get the appropriate teams involved.

ROI was all about added security and a decrease in malware.

Pricing was fair.

Go for it; there is no better way to secure guest networks without any headaches.

It has the ability to block malware threats in the cloud and control web content access from inside or outside the office.

It has significantly reduced the threat of virus/malware infections, CryptoLocker infections and has made our client’s networks more secure.

Improvement could be made in the area of detailed reporting analytics broken down by client name for individual custom reporting.

I have been using it for about three years.

I have not encountered any deployment, stability or scalability issues. The installer can be scheduled and rolled out using our set of Managed Services tools.

Customer service and technical support is excellent. I give it a 9.5.

We have used Websense, Barracuda and iPrism in the past. The flexibility of OpenDNS supporting a high-performance cloud infrastructure and not requiring any hardware or software cost was a major factor. The monthly pricing model fits into our company’s core services as a Managed Services provider and eliminates the need for annual renewal licenses.

Initial setup was straightforward for the most part, but it can become complex depending on the granular content filtering features that need to be implemented for each client.

In-house implementation. I would recommend an automated procedure on a domain network instead of a manual remote install. I recommend a default of blocking malware, phishing and pornography only, and allowing the client to determine if any additional categories need to be blocked on their network.

ROI benefits both the reseller and the client in Managed Services because of its proactive approach to network security. Our technicians aren’t spending hours of wasted time removing malware and viruses from desktops and notebooks. Customers appreciate the productive benefit of multi-layered protection that builds upon their legacy firewall and spam prevention. The pricing for the subscription is minimal (literally a few cents a day). The price is based on content management and security of client networks, as a bundled solution with an existing service.

Try it before you buy it, to test it out. Test the content filtering categories.