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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco IOS

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ACisco IOS, presently in its 15th edition, is a network operating system for service providers and enterprises alike.N/A

    Kali Linux

    Score7.3 out of 10
    N/AKali Linux is an open source, advanced penetration testing platform supported by Offensive Security headquartered in New York.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco IOSKali Linux
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco IOSKali Linux
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco IOSKali Linux
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Offensive Security
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco IOSKali Linux
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Metasploit
    Score9 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco NX-OS
    Score9.3 out of 10
    Metasploit
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco IOSKali Linux
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (6 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco IOSKali Linux
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I've worked with several network device vendors in my 10+ years of being in the industry and my favorite continues to be Cisco IOS. Overall, Cisco IOS tends to be the most stable, the most intuitive, has the best TAC support, and has the best knowledge base articles and white papers.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Offensive Security
    Kali is quite honestly appropriate for use on a Test Lab, a Virtual Machine, it will even run on a Raspberry Pi. It is the most popular tool used in most all training courses. It can be uses in home labs, work labs and production environments to perform real life scans for vulnerabilities among other things. It is the most popular tool for Cybersecurity tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • User friendly CLI.
    • Quick fixes for critical bugs.
    • Longer uptime.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Offensive Security
    • Provides high security.
    • Does great job with penetration testing.
    • Has good number of testing tools with in.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • By this point, there are several "flavors" of the Cisco IOS such as XE, XR, and the standard Cisco IOS. While they are all fairly similar, there does exist syntax differences between them. It would be ideal if at some point in the future, Cisco is able to unify all of them into one standard operating system which would use the same syntax across all platforms.
    • While overall Cisco does a great job of QA'ing their IOS, no matter the release, there's always some minor bugs. I think it's important that Cisco continue to pour resources into their QA team to test their software.
    • While I'm very familiar with the graphical readouts of "show processes cpu history" I would love for Cisco to eventually find a more intuitive way to display this data. I can't begin to count how many times I've had to teach more entry level (and even mid level) engineers how this graph is interpreted.
    • I do wish that Cisco had something similar to Juniper's "commit check" or "commit confirmed". This helps validate the changes you're about to apply, and catch errors, so that you have a better idea of the impact of the change.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Offensive Security
    • Usage wise, it is tough for use by beginners. Can be improved.
    • With Kali Linux have noticed driver related issues especially with Nvidia graphics cards.
    • Kali Linux can be improved for use as a day to day OS.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    The data that Cisco IOS is able to provide is extremely relevant, it's fast, and it's intuitive. I also love that you're able to leverage things like macros or EEM scrips to run multiple commands at once. This is especially useful when you have more junior or entry level engineers in your environment and you want to provide them with a "shortcut" by having them type a single command to execute multiple commands.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Offensive Security
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We have found other Cisco software to be filled with added functionalities as compared to iOS. New NCS software has certain programmability features that are advantageous to legacy iOS software but are more complex to use for some users. Hence, we still have most areas of the network that functions using iOS software.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Offensive Security
    The hard feature to be beat Kali with is the amount of preinstalled tools. I.e. Ubuntu is great but you would have to install each and every tool separately
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • Great uptimes on proven availability/reliability.
    • Longevity of these switches ensures great ROI.
    • Easy to learn for new users.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Offensive Security
    • Till now Kali Linux have not made a single penny negative impact on our companies business , its so powerful and useful at the same time for our company.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
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