Cisco asa

Data Sheet

Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances
Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances are purpose-built solutions that combine best-in-class security and VPN services with an innovative, extensible services architecture. Designed as a core component of the Cisco Self-Defending Network, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides proactive threat defense that stops attacksbefore they spread through the network, controls network activity and application traffic, and delivers flexible VPN connectivity. The result is a powerful multifunction network security appliance family that provides the security breadth and depth for protecting home office, branch office, small and medium-sized business, enterprise, and data center networks while reducing the overall deploymentand operations costs and complexities associated with providing this new level of security.
The Cisco ASA 5500 Series delivers a powerful combination of multiple market-proven technologies in a single platform, making it operationally and economically feasible for organizations to deploy comprehensive security services to more locations. The comprehensive portfolio of services within the Cisco ASA5500 Series enables customization for location-specific needs through tailored product editions for small to medium-sized businesses and for enterprises. These editions enable superior protection by providing the right services for the right location. Each edition combines a focused set of Cisco ASA 5500 Series services (such as firewall, SSL and IPsec VPN, IPS, and content security services) tomeet the needs of specific environments within the enterprise network. By ensuring the security needs of each location are met, the overall network security posture is raised.
Figure 1. Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive Security Appliances
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The Cisco ASA 5500 Series helps businesses more effectively and efficiently protect their networks while delivering exceptional investment protection throughthe following key elements:
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Market-proven security and VPN capabilities—Full-featured, high-performance firewall, intrusion prevention (IPS), content security, and Secure Sockets Layer/IP Security (SSL/IPsec) VPN technologies deliver robust application security, user- and applicationbased access control, worm and virus mitigation, malware protection, content filtering, and remote user/siteconnectivity.

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Extensible services architecture—Taking advantage of a modular services processing and policy framework offered by the Cisco ASA 5500 Series, businesses can apply specific security and network services on a per-traffic-flow basis, delivering highly granular policy controls and a wide range of protective services with streamlined traffic processing. The

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Data Sheet

efficiencies of this policy framework, as well as software and hardware extensibility through user-installable security services modules (SSMs) and security services cards (SSCs), advance the evolution of existing services and the deployment of new services without requiring a platformreplacement or performance compromise. With these capabilites, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides the foundation for highly customizable security policies and unprecedented services extensibility to help protect against the fast-evolving threat environment.
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Reduced deployment and operations costs—The multifunction Cisco ASA 5500 Series allows for platform, configuration, and managementstandardization, helping to decrease the costs of deployment and ongoing operations.

Introducing the Cisco ASA 5500 Series
The Cisco ASA 5500 Series includes the Cisco ASA 5505, 5510, 5520, 5540, 5550, and 5580 Adaptive Security Appliances-purpose-built, high-performance security solutions that take advantage of Cisco expertise in developing industry-leading, award-winning security and VPN solutions. The...