Max Sessions: 1.5 million concurrent connections (with AVC)
New Sessions/sec: 90,000 new connections per second with AVC (FTD); 150,000 new connections per second (ASA)
Interfaces: 8 x 10M/100M/1GBASE-T RJ-45 + 8 x 1/10G SFP+ fixed (16 ports); up to 24 total Ethernet ports with 8 x 1/10G network module option; 1 x 1/10G SFP management port
Form Factor: 1RU rack-mount appliance (1.75 x 17 x 20 in), single 400W AC PSU (dual optional), AC or DC input
Max VPN Peers: 2,000
Clustering: Not supported on 3105
Layer: L3 firewall (Layer 3 security appliance; no PoE)
Curation Review
✔ Pros:Delivers 10 Gbps firewall and threat prevention throughput in a compact 1RU form factor; Supports FTD and ASA software images, giving a choice of NGFW or classic ASA feature sets; Provides 1.5 million concurrent connections and up to 2,000 VPN peers for a small appliance; Offers 16 fixed ports (8 copper, 8 SFP+) with optional 8-port 1/10G expansion module; Dual power supply option improves availability; Carries a comparatively low price point within the Secure Firewall 3100 series
✘ Cons:No clustering support, so no horizontal scale-out or HA cluster beyond standard failover; IPsec VPN throughput of 5.5 Gbps is well below the 10 Gbps firewall rating; Stateful and threat prevention throughput are both capped at 10 Gbps, limiting use in high-throughput data centers; Optional 10G expansion and dual PSU raise the total cost well above base pricing; Reseller prices vary widely and no official Cisco list price is published on the datasheet; Requires Cisco Secure Firewall subscription licenses (threat, malware, URL) for full feature use, which are priced separately