As the shape, speed, and scale of network traffic changes, our customers realize that their networks must rapidly accommodate more applications, more agents, more encrypted flows, more data movement, and more pressure on every enforcement point. For example, in data published by a major CDN provider, agentic AI bots generate over half of all web requests, and more than half of human internet traffic is now post-quantum encrypted.

In response to an era that brings unprecedented demand to the network, we built an unprecedented firewall. In independent testing with NetSecOPEN, the Cisco Secure Firewall 6160 delivered AI-scale inspected throughput beyond what the tools built to measure it could register, all while blocking 100% of tested threats. These results are specific to Cisco Secure Firewall 6160, but the software capabilities behind Cisco Firewall, including advanced threat protection and high-performance inspection, extend across Cisco Firewall form factors in the cloud, virtually, and on-premises, from campus to data center.

Performance passed the previous benchmark by 5X

Inspection was turned on, and the test tools built to measure throughput hit their limit before the 6160 firewall did. This was the first time this NetSecOPEN lab had tested a firewall of this size, so it led to a new 5X benchmark of throughput measurement. The report shows that in an attempt to measure the firewall’s maximum throughput, they ended up measuring the test tools’ maximum throughput instead, while the firewall had not reached its ceiling.

This result shows what is possible when firewall performance is built for the scale customers now face. For organizations preparing for AI workloads, distributed applications, encrypted traffic growth, and high-volume services, this is the point: security cannot be the thing that slows the network down. It must scale with it at a sustainable cost.

By the numbers, the test tools were able to measure 269.59 Gbps inspected HTTP throughput, 222.37 Gbps inspected HTTPS throughput, 5.6 million concurrent TCP/HTTPS connections, and 79.6K HTTPS connections per second. The report notes that application traffic mix testing reached approximately 95-98% of the test tools’ CPU threshold, so the throughput of Secure Firewall 6160 was not fully measured, limiting further increases in inspected throughput and application transactions per second.

It blocked 100% of threats while under load

According to the test report, while inspecting simulated real-world traffic, Cisco Secure Firewall 6160 achieved a 100% block rate across tested threat categories: public and private CVEs, malware, and evasions. We were able to achieve this level of success because our advanced threat capabilities, informed by Cisco Talos threat intelligence, can detect and block threats in-line while maintaining high performance.

For example, SnortML uses machine learning to detect and block variants of zero-days in-line on the firewall. With Encrypted Visibility Engine (EVE), which identifies and blocks risky traffic without decrypting, we can detect zero-day threats and currently cover TLS, QUIC, SSH, and STUN protocols with recently expanded malware detection coverage across environments (Android, macOS, and Linux).

Specifically, Secure Firewall 6160 blocked 100% of the 5,388 tested threat scenarios, including 1,380 public CVEs, 180 private CVEs, 3,809 malware, and 19 evasions. These results reflect our threat protection capabilities wherever Cisco Firewall is deployed—physically, virtually, or in cloud environments—whether the firewall is protecting an office or a data center.

Best price for threat performance in the AI era

These are groundbreaking results, and they only reinforce what we’ve found as leaders in price-for-performance with inspection turned on. In previous NetSecOPEN testing, Cisco Secure Firewall showed 2.5x more real-world price-for-performance against competitive firewalls while maintaining advanced security capabilities. What is different now is the scale of the moment.

Cisco Secure Firewall 6160 shows that security can scale for the AI era without becoming the bottleneck, securing a customer’s entire environment at less cost than competitors, using up to 80% less rack space, 60% less power, and roughly one-third of the competitors’ cost per protected Gbps. It allows organizations to deploy a compact, high-density security platform that clusters for up to 8Tbps of inspected throughput and lets you scale incrementally as workloads grow. No matter where or how you deploy Cisco Firewall, you’ll get the confidence that you’ve optimized your defense for whatever comes next.

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