Cisco Firepower 1010

The Cisco Firepower 1010 Security Appliance is an entry-level firewall providing daily updates on threat intelligence, VPN access for users, and site-to-site VPN access for remote offices. When coupled with Cisco’s Firepower Management Center (FMC), it provides simple management and meets industry-standard reporting requirements. 

For those of you who have been in the cybersecurity field for some time you probably know of Cisco’s Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) 5505. This was Cisco’s entry level firewall for small businesses and was very popular due to it’s affordability and the plethora of training materials on the setup and configuration. It was a rock solid device that just worked and lasted a long time. The only negative aspect was that it didn’t have enough RAM to update past software version 8.3. The end of life (EOL) date for this device was September 1, 2019 leaving many of us looking for alternatives. Some recommended to migrate to the ASA 5506-X but Cisco removed the switchport functionality from this model, which required you to purchase a switch to support a small office.. They brought this functionality back in the Cisco Firepower 1000 series and stepped up the throughput, CPU, and memory.

The hardware consists of one outside port (ethernet 1/1), 7 inside switch ports (ethernet 1/2-1/8) with PoE on Ethernet 1/7 and 1/8. It has a management port, a RJ-45 (8P8C) console port, USB Mini B console port, and a USB Type A port, that can be used to attach an external device such as storage. The processor is a 4-core Intel CPU, it has 8-GB DDR4 DRAM, and a 200-GB M.2 SATA SSD drive.

The Firepower 1010 hardware can run either the old ASA code, with an ASDM, or the new point-and-click Firepower Threat Defense (FTD) code. In addition, it can be connected to Cisco’s Firepower Management Center (FMC) which is a central portal for the reporting and management of multiple firewalls. I decided to bite the bullet and learn the new code rather than stick with the tried and true ASA with ASDM. It is a bit of a learning curve but it is growing on me.