Cisco Firepower - Next Generations Firewalls ( FP2100, FP4100 and FP9300 )

Today I am going to talk about the Next Generation Firewall Appliances which was released by Cisco  I already discussed a lot on the Firewalls in my previous mails where i compare the Next generations firewalls from different vendors which include Cisco, Palo-Alto, Checkpoint, Fortinet, Bluecoat and many more. Here in this article I am not talking about the other vendors as this article is all about the Cisco Next generation firewall.

Fig 1.1- Cisco Next Generations Firewall (NGFWs)

Cisco launches various different models in the Next Generation Firewall segment and these models are

• Cisco Firepower 2100 series
• Cisco Firepower 4100 series
• Cisco Firepower 9300 series

Cisco Firepower 2100 Next Generations Firewalls Series

Let's talk about the Cisco FP 2100 series Firewall, Cisco Firepower 2100 Series is a family of four threat-focused NGFW security platforms that deliver business resiliency through superior threat defence.

 Cisco Firepower 2100 series Firewall provides exceptional sustained performance when advanced threat functions are enabled. Platforms like Cisco FP2100 series Firewall uniquely incorporate an innovative dual multicore CPU architecture that optimizes firewall, cryptographic, and threat inspection functions simultaneously. 

Fig 1.2- Cisco Firepower 2100 series Firewalls ( NGFW Firewall)

Cisco FP (Firepower) 2100 series firewall having the throughput ranges from 1.9 to 8.5 Gbps, addressing use cases from the Internet edge to the data center. Cisco Firepower 2100 Series appliances may also be deployed as dedicated threat sensors with fail-to-wire network modules.

Cisco Firepower 2100 series have following specifications

• 12 x 10M/100M/1GBASE-T Ethernet interfaces (RJ-45), 4 x 1 Gigabit (SFP) Ethernet interfaces
• 12 x 10M/100M/1GBASE-T Ethernet interfaces (RJ-45), 4 x 10 Gigabit (SFP+) Ethernet interfaces
• 8 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) network module

Cisco Firepower 4100 Next Generations Firewall Series

Let's talk about the Cisco FP 4100 series Firewall, Cisco Firepower 4100 Series is a family of four threat-focused NGFW security platforms. Their throughput ranges from 35 to 75 Gbps, addressing data center use cases. They deliver superior threat defence, at faster speeds, with a smaller footprint.

Fig 1.3- Cisco Firepower 4100 Series Firewalls

Firepower 4100 Series appliances may also be deployed as dedicated threat sensors, with fail-to-wire network modules Cisco Firepower 4100 series have following specifications:-

• 8 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) network modules
• 4 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet Quad SFP+ network modules
• 8-port 1Gbps copper, FTW (fail to wire) Network Module

Cisco Firepower 9300 Series Next Generations Firewalls

Cisco Firepower 9300 is a scalable (beyond 1 Tbps when clustered), carrier-grade, modular platform designed for service providers, high-performance computing centers, large data centers, campuses, high-frequency trading environments, and other environments that require low (less than 5-microsecond offload) latency and exceptional throughput. 

Fig 1.4 Cisco Firepower 9300 Series

Cisco Firepower 9300 supports flow-offloading, programmatic orchestration, and the management of security services with RESTful APIs. Cisco Firepower 9300 Series have following specifications:

• 8 x 10 Gigabit Ethernet Enhanced Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP+) network modules
• 4 x 40 Gigabit Ethernet Quad SFP+ network modules
• 2 x 100 Gigabit Ethernet Quad SFP28 network modules (double-wide, occupies both network module bays)

Firepower 9300 may also be deployed as a dedicated threat sensor, with fail-to-wire network modules. Below is the table which compare all three models of Firepower Cisco FP2100, Cisco FP4100 and Cisco FP9300 series

Fig 1.5 - Cisco Firepower Next Generations Firewall Comparison

In my next article, i will talk about the Palo-Alto Firewall models and comparison and later I will cover Checkpoint as well.