C H A P T E R
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Which Operating System and Manager is Right
for You?
Your hardware platform can run one of two operating systems. For each operating system, you have a choice
of managers. This chapter explains the operating system and manager choices.
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Operating Systems
You can use either the Secure Firewall ASA or the Secure Firewall Threat Defense (formerly Firepower Threat
Defense) operating system on your hardware platform:
• ASA—The ASA is a traditional, advanced stateful firewall and VPN concentrator.
You may want to use the ASA if you do not need the advanced capabilities of the threat defense, or if
you need an ASA-only feature that is not yet available on the threat defense. Cisco provides ASA-to-threat
defense migration tools to help you convert your ASA to the threat defense if you start with ASA and
later reimage to threat defense.
• Threat Defense—The threat defense is a next-generation firewall that combines an advanced stateful
firewall, VPN concentrator, and next generation IPS. In other words, the threat defense takes the best of
ASA functionality and combines it with the best next-generation firewall and IPS functionality.
We recommend using the threat defense over the ASA because it contains most of the major functionality
of the ASA, plus additional next generation firewall and IPS functionality.
To reimage between the ASA and the threat defense, see the
Cisco Secure Firewall ASA and Threat Defense
Managers
The threat defense and ASA support multiple managers.
Cisco Firepower 1100 Getting Started Guide
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