PACKETPERF

Primary Device

Cisco Secure Firewall 4245
Cisco Secure Firewall 4245
★ 3.3 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Firewall Throughput: 140 Gbps (FW+AVC, 1024B, per Cisco 4200 datasheet); 180 Gbps (ASA stateful inspection, 1500B UDP)
  • Threat Prevention Throughput: 140 Gbps (FW+AVC+IPS, 1024B, 50% TLS 1.2 traffic)
  • IPsec VPN Throughput: 140 Gbps (per Cisco 4200 series listing)
  • Max Sessions: 60 million concurrent (with AVC, per Cisco datasheet)
  • New Sessions/sec: 800,000 (unverified; one listing cites 1.7M)
  • Interfaces: 8 x 10GbE SFP+ on-chassis; 2 NetMod bays supporting up to 8 x 25GbE SFP28 (netmod-dependent)
  • Form Factor: 1U rackmount

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Very high throughput for a 1U appliance (140 Gbps threat prevention and IPsec VPN, per Cisco datasheet); 60 million concurrent sessions with AVC for large data center and campus edge deployments; Modular NetMod bays allow 25GbE SFP28 connectivity; Supports Cisco Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) or ASA software images; Multi-instance support for consolidating workloads; Strong integration with Cisco Firepower Management Center and Cisco security ecosystem
  • ✘ Cons: Very high acquisition cost compared with mid-range NGFWs; Throughput and session figures vary across Cisco and reseller sources, so validation against the current datasheet is needed; Max VPN peer count and new connections per second are not confirmed by an authoritative Cisco source; Full 25GbE capacity requires purchasing separate NetMod modules; Licensing (threat, malware, URL) is a significant recurring cost on top of hardware
  • Est. Price: $222,425 - $326,223

Compare Against

Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber
Ubiquiti UniFi Cloud Gateway Fiber
★ 5.0 Value Score

Technical Specifications

  • Firewall Throughput: Not published by Ubiquiti; 5 Gbps IDS/IPS-secured routing throughput is the only headline figure (reviewer and retailer listings)
  • Threat Prevention Throughput: 5 Gbps IDS/IPS
  • IPsec VPN Throughput: Not published
  • Max Sessions: Not published; 500+ simultaneous users and 4,000-entry MAC address table
  • New Sessions/sec: Not published
  • Interfaces: 2x 10G SFP+; 1x 10GbE RJ45 (10G/2.5G/1G); 4x 2.5GbE RJ45 (2.5G/1G/100M/10M); 2 of the 6 WAN-capable ports are default WAN (1x 10G SFP+ and 1x 10GbE RJ45), with the other ports selectable as WAN
  • Form Factor: Compact desktop; 212.8 x 127.6 x 30 mm; 675 g without SSD
  • CPU / RAM: Quad-core ARM Cortex-A73 at 2.2 GHz / 3 GB RAM
  • Storage: Optional NVMe SSD up to 2 TB (NVR storage)
  • PoE Budget: 30W total from one PoE+ port (port 4)
  • Max Power Consumption: 29.4W excluding PoE output

Curation Review

  • ✔ Pros: Lowest-cost Ubiquiti gateway with 5 Gbps IDS/IPS, rated above the UDM-SE's 3.5 Gbps at a lower launch price ($279 MSRP vs. $499); Multi-gig flexibility with 10GBASE-T, dual SFP+ and four 2.5GbE ports; Compact desktop design with optional NVMe storage for UniFi Protect/NVR use; Supports site-to-site VPN plus OpenVPN, WireGuard and L2TP server functions, with integrated PoE+ for one device; Managed through the UniFi Network controller with 500+ simultaneous user capacity
  • ✘ Cons: No official routing, IPsec or WireGuard throughput figures published by Ubiquiti; community WireGuard numbers (around 400-500 Mbps) are unverified; Only one PoE+ output port (30W total) versus eight PoE ports on the UDM-SE; Lower device and user capacity and less storage expansion than the UDM-SE; No published IPsec tunnel or concurrent session limits; Reseller prices now often run above the launch MSRP (about $320-$346 USD at US resellers)
  • Est. Price: $279 - $346

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