Cisco ASA 5550 Features

Now let us see the next ASA model in the series which is the Cisco ASA 5550. With over one gigabit firewall performance (1.2 Gbps) this appliance can be easily used on ISP public services segments or on medium data rate campuses and data centers. From this model and up, there is no support for Security Services Module (SSM), so basically you can not include an IDS/IPS or Content Inspection functionality integrated inside the box. However, with this model you get the advantage of having eight gigabit integrated copper ports (8-10/100/100) PLUS four optical gigabit ports (4 SFPs), which means you will not run out of network port capacity easily.

Let’s see the features of the ASA 5550 in more detail below: Read the rest of this entry

Cisco ASA 5540 Features

Next in the line is the Cisco ASA 5540 Firewall appliance. This device is geared towards large enterprises which need firewall throughput of 650Mbps. The ASA 5540 is the highest model that supports a Security Services Module (SSM) in order to offer Content Inspection or Intrusion Prevention IPS services to the network. The SSM module can host also a four-port Gigabit Ethernet card, in addition to the Content Inspection or IPS modules. The higher-end models 5550 and 5580 DO NOT support the SSM module. Note also the greatly enhanced number of supported VPN sessions (5000 or 2500 for SSL VPN) compared with smaller models. This enhancement makes the 5540 ideal for replacing the older VPN 3000 Concentrator device.

Let’s see the features of the ASA 5540 in more detail below: Read the rest of this entry

Cisco ASA 5520 Features

Continuing our series of posts about the hardware and software features of ASA firewalls, this article focuses on the Cisco ASA 5520 model. This model is suitable as Internet Edge device for medium size enterprises but can be used also for internal LAN segmentation. From this model and up there are no Base License or Security Plus License options, like the 5505 and 5510 models. Also, the four integrated Network Interfaces by default support gigabit 10/100/1000 speed. There is an additional Management Interface which supports Fast Ethernet speed (10/100 Mbps). This Interface can be used as normal firewall interface by issuing the “no management-only” interface configuration command. So there are essentially five network interfaces integrated on the appliance.

In more detail, the Cisco ASA 5520 firewall features are the following: Read the rest of this entry