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Cisco Secure Email vs GWAVA [EOL] comparison

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Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Defender for Offi...
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Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
45
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (1st), Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) (1st), Microsoft Security Suite (10th)
Cisco Secure Email
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
Email Security (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (8th)
GWAVA [EOL]
Average Rating
9.0
Number of Reviews
1
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Featured Reviews

Luis-Brown - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 8, 2023
Allows for easy reporting of problems, valuable anti-phishing, and anti-malware support
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 lacks proactivity in assisting us with preparing for potential threats before they occur. While they employ a substantial amount of threat intelligence to preemptively prevent incidents, their effectiveness diminishes when it comes to delivering proactive threat intelligence alerts from Microsoft. Their focus primarily revolves around managing the internal environment. On the other hand, my other vendor, Check Point, along with my membership in MS-ISAC, supplements me with this type of information. The phishing and spam filters could use some improvement. It is adequate, but it doesn't match the quality of Proofpoint or Mimecast. However, it comes close in effectiveness. Plus, if we're obtaining it for free, investing in the other products seems impractical.
Muhammad Naeemuddoja - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 14, 2023
Robust email security with advanced threat protection, seamless integration with the Cisco security ecosystem, and flexibility in deployment options
While Cisco is a preferred choice for larger enterprises, its products, especially in the realm of security, tend to be more expensive due to their advanced features. Many organizations commonly rely on Microsoft Outlook for their email needs. Transitioning to Cisco security solutions, including Cisco SecureMail, requires careful consideration and typically involves a learning stage. The decision between traditional hardware and virtual machines (VMs) for deploying solutions like Cisco Secure Mail often depends on financial considerations. VMs are generally more cost-effective compared to dedicated hardware, leading industries to increasingly favor VM deployment. The choice is particularly relevant when the server's capabilities are robust enough to meet organizational needs. Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.
GW
Aug 6, 2019
An excellent anti-spam solution for mail systems
We primarily use the solution as a gatekeeper for our email system We have the visibility of what was locked and what was dropped from our mail system and what is safe for our users. We are able to track any suspicious mail going through our system. We can also track each end-user that receives…

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"It also gives me good visibility because, with Defender, I'm using a Microsoft product to defend Microsoft products. The integration was really seamless and I have wide visibility because it picks up almost everything. Literally, I can see almost every activity that happens, from the e-mail to the workstation itself."
"Defender for 365 is a comprehensive cloud-based solution. The value of the cloud is that you aren't alone. Threat intelligence and analytics are shared in the cloud. We don't have to find the solution alone. If you face an unknown threat with traditional solutions like Trend Micro and Symantec, you need to open a case and send your information to them to analyze forensically and identify the source of the attack."
"Some of the valuable features on the email side are anti-phishing, anti-malware, and Safe Links."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is a stable solution."
"The initial setup was easy."
"The email protection is excellent, especially in terms of anti-phishing policies."
"The most valuable feature of Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is the ease of use."
"Microsoft Defender has a feature to protect each and every attachment. Even if it's an encrypted attachment, it will check for any potential threats."
"Initially, the most valuable feature for us was the SenderBase Reputation, because that reduced the number of emails that were even considered by the system by a huge number..."
"Cisco Secure Email is part of Cisco's extensive efforts and investments in technology, especially in the realm of cyber security. The product is one among many security solutions offered by Cisco."
"Cisco Secure Email has strong inbound services."
"It has an intuitive, clear graphical interface where you can deploy your policies and understand the overall flow. There are a lot of things that you cannot handle on the graphic interface, like message filters. For this, you need to go to a lower level where you have more power, like command line interface. So, this solution has the best of both worlds. There are not a lot of bells and whistles. It is more practical with access to most features that you can configure."
"This solution provides some benefits, like comfortable access to TAC support. You get prompt support when working directly with Cisco."
"It sends us reports, where we can see if there have been attacks, e.g. DDoS. If so, we can switch to a clean IP."
"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."
"We rely heavily on antivirus protection, email content filtering, and authentication mechanisms to ensure compliance with email security. Regarding phishing attempts, while phishing protection features are crucial, we also emphasize user education as a critical defence. The intelligence services Cisco provides, such as the Cisco Intelligence Center, play a significant role in analyzing and validating threats, including phishing attempts, in our email security practices."
"It's a perfect business pump filter. We have much less false positives, and also less spam than other organizations."
 

Cons

"One area for improvement is support, in terms of being able to reach them and, especially, technical support for configuration."
"We are always looking for others tools to increase automation on tasks. There can be better integration with other solutions, such as PowerPoint and email."
"Microsoft sometimes has downtime, and we'll get several incidents coming in back to back. We have a huge backlog of notifications, many of which may be false positives. However, there might be serious alerts, so we can't risk dismissing all of them at once."
"Configuration requires going to a lot of places rather than just accessing one tab."
"The company should focus on adding threats that the solution is currently unable to detect."
"I'd like some additional features any product can give me to protect our environment in a better way."
"There is room for improvement in terms of reporting."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 must improve the overall management style, including the GUI. It also needs to change the filters so that it is easy to whitelist and blacklist data."
"I would rate the stability a six out of ten. We had multiple issues with the stability."
"The management features of the product are not up to date."
"The hardware is not up to the mark. Two to three times a year we have complete downtime."
"There could be additional DLP functionality for it."
"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."
"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."
"I would like them to add some clustering or high availability features."
"The product's GUI for the dashboard needs improvement."
"The solution needs to be more user-friendly. I don't want to have to go to my IT guy and have him explain aspects of the solution to me. There should be a way for them to be able to translate aspects of the product to a typical user in a clear concise way."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution could be better by simplifying the business model of their licensing. It was hard to figure out how to get the licensing done for the environment, initially."
"The pricing is normal. Considering its popularity, it's not overpriced."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 comes with Microsoft Windows. It is free with the operating system."
"For large enterprise organizations, they can definitely afford it, but for small and medium organizations, they might struggle to cover the expenses."
"The product is very expensive."
"It is much more expensive than using another solution because we have had to include some options and upgrade our license."
"I was working in the government and it was too expensive for us to use our Microsoft products."
"Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is an add-on to the Office license. Many customers are purchasing this solution."
"It is a reasonably priced solution."
"Cisco Secure Email is more expensive than other products. I rate it a five out of ten. There are no additional costs. You only need to pay the subscription amounts."
"Cisco Secure Email is expensive, but we get what we pay for."
"You're going to get what you pay for. If you're not willing to pay the price of Cisco, you're not going to get a product that's as good as Cisco. I don't think Cisco is overpriced, because for the last two years I've been comparing it to Microsoft and Cisco has been cheaper and given us more features."
"I would rate the pricing a ten out of ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive."
"The solution is expensive."
"As per market availability, this solution is more expensive than other vendors."
"We do annual licensing for Cisco Secure Email Gatewayand SMA together, and possibly SmartNet support. Packaged together, the cost is just under $38,000."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
23%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Government
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Threat Explorer is an invaluable tool for me, and it plays a crucial role in helping me discern the origins of variou...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
The pricing is reasonable since it comes integrated with our Office 365 license.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Defender for Office 365?
Sometimes, phishing emails manage to pass through the filter, so the system needs to enhance its phishing email detec...
What do you like most about Cisco Secure Email?
Cisco Secure Email is a budget-friendly solution.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Email?
The pricing for Cisco Email Security Appliance involves recurring costs for licenses based on the contracted time fra...
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Email?
The discontinuation of physical hardware solutions is a significant area for improvement in the Cisco Email Security ...
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Also Known As

MS Defender for Office 365
Cisco Email Security, IronPort, Cisco Email Security, ESA, Email Security Appliances
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Overview

 

Sample Customers

Microsoft Defender for Office 365 is trusted by companies such as Ithaca College.
SUNY Old Westbury, CoxHealth, City of Fullerton, Indra
SVG Strassenverkehrs-Genossenschaft Wªrttemberg eG, ELO Digital Office GmbH, Grafisch Lyceum Utrecht, Deutscher Steuerberaterverband (DStV), Investment Savings Bank of Pennsylvania, Gwinnett Health System, Long Island Rail Road, Wisconsin Historical Society, South Texas Nuclear Facility, Northwestern Michigan College, Carilion Health System, North Memorial Medical Center
Find out what your peers are saying about Microsoft, Cisco, Fortinet and others in Email Security. Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.