Cisco ASA 5510 Firewall

Network Protection Tailored to Your Business

Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances are easy-to-deploy solutions that integrate world-class firewall, Unified Communications (voice/video) security, SSL and IPsec VPN, intrusion prevention (IPS), and content security services in a flexible, modular product family. Designed as a key component of the Cisco Self-Defending Network, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides intelligent threat defense and secure communications services that stop attacks before they impact business continuity. Designed to protect networks of all sizes, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series enables organizations to lower their overall deployment and operations costs while delivering comprehensive multilayer security.

The Challenge:

The information assets and applications traveling on today's networks are the lifeblood of the modern enterprise. As businesses continue to optimize their processes and streamline their operations for improved profitability and competitiveness, their networks become increasingly more complex and interconnected. Now, as businesses depend on these networks as mission-critical infrastructure, the security and reliability challenges businesses face continue to grow.

Examples of threats to today's business networks include:

• Unauthorized network or information access-As businesses increase internal network connectivity and collaboration with new customers and business partners, they need to effectively maintain control of their vital assets to preserve their competitive edge and limit corporate liability. New applications can increase business automation and collaboration, but can also open dangerous security holes, if not secured properly.
• Decreased employee productivity and wasted bandwidth-Businesses need to effectively control the use of applications, such as peer-to-peer file sharing and instant messaging, which plague many unsuspecting businesses, to improve employee productivity and reduce the costs associated with Internet connectivity.
• Unplanned network downtime-Businesses need highly reliable networks that help ensure continuous operations for maximum productivity, including support for planned and unplanned maintenance upgrades. These networks must be able to defend against threats such as Internet-based denial of service attacks or internal sabotage from disgruntled employees or contractors.

The Solution:

The Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition enables businesses to securely deploy mission-critical applications and networks in a highly reliable manner, while providing significant investment protection and lower operational costs through its unique, modular design. Businesses can protect their networks from unauthorized access using the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition's robust policy enforcement services. These services combine with market-leading VPN services to enable businesses to securely extend their networks across low-cost Internet connections to business partners, remote sites, and mobile workers. This flexible solution can adapt as an organization's needs evolve along with the ever-changing security threat landscape, giving businesses the ability to easily integrate market-leading intrusion prevention, antivirus, antispam, antispyware, URL filtering, and other advanced content security services for additional layers of protection. Combined with Cisco management and monitoring application solutions, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition provides world-class security with lower operational costs.

Capabilities of the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition include:

• Most trusted and deployed firewall technology-Building upon the market-proven capabilities of the Cisco PIX® Family of security appliances, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides a wide range of services to secure modern network environments. Flexible policy capabilities prevent unauthorized access to network resources or vital corporate information. Advanced application control capabilities help businesses effectively control the use of peer-to-peer file sharing, instant messaging, and other non-corporate applications-thus improving employee productivity and reducing wasted Internet bandwidth.
• Threat-protected VPN-Building upon the market-proven VPN capabilities of the Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrator, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition provides secure site-to-site and remote-user access to corporate networks and services. This solution offers businesses maximum flexibility for secure connectivity by combining support for Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and IP Security (IPsec) VPN capabilities into a single, best-in-class solution. Using the services offered by the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition, businesses can enforce identity-based security and networking policies to all network traffic, thus enabling businesses to tailor-fit access privileges for every group of employees, contractors, and business partners.
• Adaptive design provides superior investment protection and extensibility to address future threats-The Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition can adapt as businesses needs change through its unique, modular design. Businesses can easily expand the number of security services offered by adding a high-performance, purpose-built Cisco ASA 5500 Series security services module, such as the Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module (AIP SSM) for advanced intrusion prevention services, or the Content Security and Control Security Services Module (CSC SSM) for advanced antivirus, antispam, and other content security services.
• Intelligent network integration and enterprise-class resiliency-Building on more than 20 years of Cisco networking leadership and innovation, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition delivers a wide range of intelligent networking services for seamless integration into today's diverse network environments. Businesses can maximize network uptime and throughput by taking advantage of the many resiliency and scalability services this solution has to offer, such Active/Active high availability, "zero-downtime software upgrades," and integrated VPN clustering and load balancing.
• Easy deployment and management-The Cisco management and monitoring suite enables large-scale deployment and operation of the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition. Cisco provides a complete solution, covering management and monitoring. Also included with the solution is Cisco Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM), which provides a powerful, yet easy-to-use browser-based management and monitoring interface for individual security appliances.

Business Benefits:

The Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition provides the security and connectivity services that helps your business with:

• Controlled access to corporate resources-Prevents unauthorized access to applications or information assets by providing businesses with fine-grain identity- or network-based access control. Integrates with popular user authentication services such as Microsoft Active Directory, Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), Kerberos, and RSA SecurID.
• Secure deployment of new applications-Enables businesses to safely deploy new applications by providing advanced application-layer security services for a wide range of popular applications, including Web-based applications, e-mail, voice over IP (VoIP), video, and multimedia applications. Hides corporate network addresses from the Internet for an additional layer of protection from attack.
• Secure remote access to corporate network-Provides both SSL- and IPsec-based methods of threat-protected VPN connectivity to remote sites, business partners, and mobile workers.
• Business resiliency-Prevents disruption of mission-critical applications and services due to security breaches by implementing world-class firewall, VPN, and networking technologies.

Architecture:

The Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition is the focal point of a complete solution for secure network access. Tight integration with Cisco management and monitoring systems enables organizations to deploy and maintain a security solution that protects mission-critical applications and information assets (Figure 1).

Technical Specifications:

Primary Components:

• Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition - Provides a wide range of security and networking services at locations across the enterprise.
• Management - Cisco Security Manager provides an enterprise-grade management infrastructure for large-scale deployments of Cisco security technologies.
• Monitoring - Cisco Security Monitoring, Analysis, and Response System (Cisco Security MARS) provides real-time monitoring and incident response capabilities, enabling businesses to get the most value from the security and networking services of the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Firewall Edition.

Notes:

SSC: Security Services Card
SSM: Security Services Module
IC: Interface Card
AIP SSM: Advanced Inspection and Prevention Security Services Module
CSC SSM: Content Security and Control Security Services Module
4GE SSM: 4 Gigabit Ethernet Security Services Module

¹ Beginning with Cisco ASA Software v7.1, SSL VPN (Web VPN) capability requires a license. Systems include 2 SSL VPN users by default for evaluation and remote management purposes
² Beginning with Cisco ASA Software v7.2.3, the ASA 5510 Security Plus license enables 2 10/100/1000 interfaces and 3 10/100 interfaces
³ Licensed features
⁴ A/S = Active/Standby; A/A = Active/Active
⁵ 3 (2 regular zones and 1 restricted zone that can only communicate with 1 other zone)
⁶ Supported in a future ASA software release

Documentation:

Download the Cisco ASA 5500 Series Product Brochure (PDF).