ASA5555-K7

ASA5555-K7 Exact Firewall Edition

ASA5555-K7 is a physical Cisco ASA 5555-X Firewall Edition in the no-payload-encryption (NPE) edition. Cisco documents 8 copper Gigabit Ethernet data ports, one copper Gigabit Ethernet management port and one AC power supply for this edition.

Encryption suffix boundary

K7 does not provide payload-encryption capability. Do not advertise or accept it as a substitute for a K9 VPN appliance, and do not infer AES, 3DES or encrypted-tunnel operation from the platform family's general VPN scale.

Platform scale is not current fitness

Cisco's data sheet lists up to 5000 IPsec VPN peers for the ASA 5555-X family, but this historical maximum does not override the K7 encryption restriction, current software support, measured performance or lifecycle status.

Lifecycle decision

Cisco's compatibility record shows September 30, 2025 as the end-of-support date for the ASA 5555-X family. The procurement record must identify the supported successor and a policy-conversion owner.

High-capacity NPE firewall boundary

ASA5555-K7 is the no-payload-encryption edition of the ASA 5555-X. It may have the larger hardware profile, but it must not be presented as an encrypted VPN headend.

Define the non-encrypted zones and policy functions that remain, then identify every certificate, tunnel, protected route or application assumption that belongs on a different platform. Keep this distinction visible in the quotation and receiving record.

NPE topology verification

Match the ASA5555-X chassis, eight data GE ports, one management GE port, AC supply and K7 identity. Trace routing, NAT, policy and logging end to end, prove that payload encryption is not expected, and retain a dated migration diagram.

Large-chassis NPE topology map

Map the eight data interfaces into trust zones and overlay route preference, NAT ownership, policy direction and log collectors. Highlight any path whose traffic volume or business criticality could tempt future VPN use, then reserve that function on the supported successor instead. Include management isolation and an out-of-band recovery route because a high-capacity chassis can concentrate many dependencies even when it provides no payload encryption. Validate the map against interface counters and current routing output.

Related ASA Firewall Edition records

• ASA5555-K9 - compare chassis scale and the K7/K8/K9 encryption boundary.
• ASA5555-K8 - compare chassis scale and the K7/K8/K9 encryption boundary.
• ASA5512-K7 - compare chassis scale and the K7/K8/K9 encryption boundary.

Official Cisco evidence: Cisco ASA 5500-X data sheet, Cisco platform lifecycle notice, and Cisco Secure Firewall compatibility record.