Cisco is updating its desktop firewall portfolio for branch offices and small businesses. The new Cisco Secure Firewall 1200 series is designed to provide high-performance and secure connectivity for small branch offices. In addition, there is a new top model called MX650 for the cloud-managed Meraki MX firewalls. Cisco is also introducing an AI assistant for firewalls.
The Secure Firewall 1200 series will offer three new models starting in October 2024. The smallest model, 1210 CE, provides 3 Gbps firewall and 2 Gbps IPSec VPN throughput with 8 1000BASE-T copper ports. The 1210 CP model includes UPoE+ on four of the eight ports for powering devices like WLAN access points or phones. For higher throughput or connections via fiber optic, the 1220 CX model offers 8 1000BASE-T copper ports, 2 SFP+ slots, and up to 6 Gbps firewall and 4 Gbps IPSec VPN throughput. All three models come with an external power supply.
According to Cisco, the new models offer up to three times better price/performance ratio compared to competitors, although specific prices were not disclosed during the Live event.
Cisco has also announced the new software version 7.6 of Firewall Threat Defense (FTD), which will be available for all physical and virtual Cisco firewalls. This update will support the deployment of branch networks with pre-configured SD-WAN and firewall templates as well as Zero-Touch Provisioning.
The new flagship model for cloud-managed firewalls is the MX650, which features a SFP28 slot for up to 25G dedicated on the WAN side and configurable on the LAN side with a 25G SFP28, two 10G SFP+, and eight 1G SFP slots. The MX650 is expected to deliver up to 25 Gbps over 5 times the maximum IPSec throughput and 16 Gbps throughput for advanced security features, doubling the performance compared to the MX450. The maximum recommended number of clients also increases from 10,000 to 50,000 with the MX650.
At the Cisco Live event in Las Vegas, information was also shared about the AI Assistant for Security, which is built on the Firewall Management Center (FMC) or the Cisco Defense Orchestrator (CDO) in the cloud. This tool aims to help administrators manage their firewalls, configure policies, and access reference materials efficiently. The AI assistant uses a generative AI tool based on LLMs with Natural Language Processing (NLP) to provide recommendations, such as software updates, in case of issues like unexpected restarts.