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DATA SHEET
CISCO ASA SOFTWARE VERSION 7.0
Cisco
®
ASA 5500 Series adaptive security appliances deliver numerous market-leading, high-performance security and
VPN
services for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), enterprises, and service providers—in addition to providing
unprecedented services flexibility and extensibility and lower deployment and operations costs.
PRODUCT OVERVIEW
Cisco
®
ASA 5500 Series adaptive security appliances are purpose-built solutions that combine best-of-breed security and VPN services with the
innovative Cisco Adaptive Identification and Mitigation (AIM) architecture. Designed as a key component of the Cisco Self-Defending Network,
the Cisco ASA 5500 Series provides proactive threat defense that stops attacks before 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 SMBs and enterprise networks while reducing the overall deployment and 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 to deploy comprehensive security services to more locations. And its multifunction security profile virtually eliminates the
difficult—and risky—decision of making trade-offs between robust security protection and the operational costs associated with multiple devices in
numerous locations.
The Cisco ASA 5500 Series helps businesses more effectively and efficiently protect their networks while delivering exceptional investment
protection through the following key elements:
•
Market-proven security and VPN capabilities—Full-featured, high-performance firewall, intrusion prevention system (IPS), network antivirus,
and IP Security/Secure Sockets Layer (IPSec/SSL) VPN technologies deliver robust application security, user- and application-based access
control, worm and virus mitigation, malware protection, and remote user and site connectivity.
•
Extensible Adaptive Identification and Mitigation services architecture—Taking advantage of a modular services processing and policy
framework, the Cisco Adaptive Identification and Mitigation architecture enables the application of specific security or network services on
a per traffic flow basis, delivering highly granular policy controls and anti-x protection with streamlined traffic processing. The efficiencies
of the Cisco ASA 5500 Series AIM architecture, as well as software and hardware extensibility through user-installable security services
modules (SSMs), advance the evolution of existing services as well as deployment of new services without requiring a platform replacement
or performance compromise. As the architectural foundation of the Cisco ASA 5500 Series, AIM enables highly customizable security policies
and unprecedented services extensibility to help protect against the fast-evolving threat environment.
•
Reduced deployment and operations costs—These multifunction appliances allow for platform, configuration, and management standardization,
helping decrease the costs of deployment and ongoing operations.
MARKET-PROVEN SECURITY AND VPN CAPABILITIES
The Cisco ASA 5500 Series leverages Cisco’s expertise in developing industry-leading and award-winning security and VPN solutions, and
integrates the latest technologies from Cisco PIX
®
500 Series Security Appliances, Cisco IPS 4200 Series Intrusion Prevention Systems, and
Cisco VPN 3000 Series Concentrators. By combining these technologies, the Cisco ASA 5500 Series delivers an unmatched, best-of-breed solution
that stops the broadest range of threats and provides businesses with flexible, secure connectivity options. The breadth and depth of security and
networking services provided by the Cisco ASA 5500 Series enable it to protect any area of the network, including the most common threat vectors
such as mobile users, remote sites, and unmanaged desktops and servers. As a key component of the Cisco Adaptive Threat Defense and flexible
