Cisco Duo - Essentials Edition

I use Cisco Duo  for multi-factor authentication, remote access, and remote access authentication. I use Cisco Duo  primarily for the multi-factor authenticator for remote access.

Cisco Duo is beneficial for me in terms of security.

I don't have much detail about the integration of comprehensive identity security into the Duo IAM  solution, but my complaint is that it's not as seamless as a product like Zscaler for remote access. It's not as seamless.

It's difficult for me to summarize the room for improvement as I'm on the enterprise network side, not really security. My response will be based on user experience, not detailed technical aspects of the network with respect to security. I use ZIA  and Zscaler for remote access connection, and Zscaler is seamless. I don't need to do anything; it does the identification of my system. As far as my system is issued by the company, I don't need to do any multi-layer authentication. It authenticates seamlessly. With Cisco Duo, you have to do that, and customers complain about that process. At some point, you need to be technically savvy to understand how to use Cisco Duo.

I have been using Cisco Duo for two or three years.

I've heard customers complain about latency in network usage.

Cisco Duo is very scalable.

I would rate the technical support of the product as a nine out of ten.

The deployment and installation process for Cisco Duo is quite straightforward, which is an advantage.

I do not track any ROI or return on investment.

I think Cisco Duo is quite affordable; it's not really so expensive.

The major difference between Zscaler and Cisco is that for Zscaler, there's a component called ZIA  that has a Zero Trust aspect. The identity comes with the system issued, so you don't need any multi-factor authenticator per se. Your identity is matched back end to know that you are the one, and you don't need to do another level of multi-factor authentication, which users complain of being cumbersome.

I use ZIA and Zscaler for remote access connection, and Zscaler is seamless.

I am still working with Cisco products, and I still have the same portfolio. I don't work with the Cisco Secure Access  product as I'm more focused on the enterprise infrastructure of routers, switches, SD-WAN, and data center. However, it's part of what I do, though not much of a call with respect to security, but it's something I'm interested in. I need to know what it does and if I can propose it to my clients.

I know Cisco Duo and have used it. It's not really a feature I handle regarding Cisco Duo's unified identity intelligence facilitating the understanding of user behavior. The security team handles that, and I don't have much visibility; it's purely transparent to me. However, I've heard them talk about it, and it really helps them to understand user behavior, mobility, and what they do on the network.

I would rate this review an overall eight out of ten.

I am an IT system support person, and my use cases with Cisco Duo  started out with helping clients at my firm and the firms my contracting agencies had by teaching them how to set up Cisco Duo  and understand how to use it. Eventually, some of the systems I have access to on my own, usually the corporate systems and employee portals, were Cisco Duo-protected. It has been a split between using Cisco Duo and Microsoft Authenticator , depending on how the MFA has been set up. I started out as IT support, helping people install Cisco Duo on their Android and Apple devices, and I believe they actually had a computer client. Eventually, I had to use it in my own work to authenticate and gain access to the systems I support. Moreover, I have seen a lot of it used to access employee portals, either by end-user employees or my own employee portals.

My last access to Cisco Duo involved helping people either activate their Cisco Duo accounts on their individual Apple or Android devices, or if they were locked out, unlock their accounts or move them over to a new device.

The features I use in Cisco Duo include Duo Pushes to confirm my identity to the device, and eventually as MFA security was increased, I actually had to use exchange passcodes. Sometimes, I have to go into the site and get into Cisco Duo to retrieve the passcode, and many of them have been two-factor, where the sites send a passcode that I have to enter into Cisco Duo. It has been more of the latter.

I have not seen issues with lagging or crashing on Cisco Duo's end; it was usually on the client end, often because someone set up a bad upgrade or there were connection issues with the Cisco Duo cloud through the administrative site.

As support, I do not find it an issue with Cisco Duo product itself; it is more an issue of organization administration. Often, people do not receive expiration messages, and sometimes, for security reasons, accounts get disabled without notifying the end user, so they mistakenly think something has gone wrong when it really just needs to be re-enabled on the external system. It is primarily an issue on the administrative side of the firm I am working for.

I am familiar with Cisco Duo and have probably been using it since around 2020.

Cisco Duo seems very scalable. In my experience, I started with a small-medium business, and in my last contracting position, it was a large one for a major worldwide airline that had hundreds of thousands of devices that could use Cisco Duo, and it scaled very well. The administrative site was also very easy to navigate for locating people and devices. I also have a background in computer asset management, so I have the skill set to locate device records easily.

In terms of quality and speed of support for Cisco Duo, I find it just as fine as any other Cisco product. It is simpler at the endpoint; there is much less involved in calling technical support to resolve issues compared to other Cisco products. I have also dealt with firewalls and VPNs, and I can say that Cisco Duo administration is much less involved than other Cisco areas. I would rate support for Cisco Duo a 10, as I have never had a negative experience.

My experience with MFA is primarily Cisco Duo and Microsoft Authenticator , and I have used them both similarly, either as pushes for allow or deny or as stronger MFA requirements such as exchanging passcodes. From my experience, Cisco Duo seems a lot easier to install and operate. In helping add accounts to either my devices or to the devices of the people I am supporting, both systems work well. I can get passcodes or utilize QR codes. One thing I noticed about my current firm is their initial hesitation to consider QR code exchange secure, but eventually, it was re-enabled to reduce support times. As an administrator, I have done both, pushing activation to pre-installed devices already registered to a system or actually sending people a QR code to their email, and both methods worked fine with personal and corporate email.

The setup of Cisco Duo is easy. Most of the time, the setup took me walking the end user through the installation over the phone, but if they understood how to get to their App Store or Play Store, it takes probably under two minutes. Most of it depends on wide area network or internet speed; activating directly on a client device versus sending an activation email makes a difference. If it is all set up and requires only sending an activation code message, it is about a minute. Cisco Duo installs very quickly on Android and Apple devices, provided the Wi-Fi connection is good.

From what I was involved in with Cisco Duo, we actually conducted Cisco Duo pushes through the management systems, enabling that through MDMs, the Bomgar. I found it pretty easy to grab the latest version of the Cisco Duo installer to update the packages on our management systems. I do not remember having any problems; it is one of the easier applets to package or to already find packaged.

I am currently between jobs or contracts, but I believe for the MFA administrator, it would help if they set up the filters for gathering the data. Cisco Duo seems very scalable. In my experience, I started with a small-medium business, and in my last contracting position, it was a large one for a major worldwide airline that had hundreds of thousands of devices that could use Cisco Duo, and it scaled very well. The administrative site was also very easy to navigate for locating people and devices. I also have a background in computer asset management, so I have the skill set to locate device records easily. I have given this review an overall rating of 10.