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    Jeffry Pereira

Good pricing, easy to give role-based access, and easy to manage

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

The company's use case for Cisco ISE is switch access. I'm from the high-performance compute side. I'm not the back office IT. I'm what they call GSIT. Their use cases are different but very similar.

How has it helped my organization?

On our side, Cisco ISE has improved cybersecurity resilience. The company uses it for global WAN and other things. We haven't had any issues.

What is most valuable?

For me, the TACACS feature is the most valuable. I have also used Cisco ISE with LDAP, not with Active Directory. That works for me because I prefer LDAP versus Active Directory.

What needs improvement?

The templates could be better. When you have to do certs, especially with X.500 certs, it isn't very intuitive.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using Cisco ISE since 2011.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

After I set it and forget it, upgrading Cisco ISE is the only thing to do.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I've never had a problem with Cisco. Cisco has always scaled well, so it's pretty good.

How are customer service and support?

Initially, it wasn't good, but once I found the right TAC person, it was fine. I had to probably get level three or above, and then I had to get a software developer because the certs didn't initially work properly to give you a special code. I'd rate their support a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I used OpenRADIUS before. That was open source. I switched because I'm the support for everything. It was easy to support with Cisco ISE.

Role-based access is easy to do with Cisco ISE versus OpenRADIUS. That's because OpenRADIUS is something you have to manage yourself. You have to manage the certs and other things. You have to define the roles yourself for special read access and for certain groups and multi-groups.

The only thing I didn't like at the beginning was that Cisco ISE was limited to how many groups you could use. That problem has been fixed. I haven't run into that problem.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex. The main part was the certs, especially the X.500 certs with LDAP. Azure Directory is a little bit smoother, but I prefer LDAP.

It's deployed for internal switch access. It's purely for switch access and role-based access.

What about the implementation team?

I deployed it myself.

What was our ROI?

We've seen an ROI.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I get very good pricing from Cisco, so I don't have a problem with that. I also don't have a problem with licensing because we get enterprise or global licensing.

What other advice do I have?

It hasn't helped to free up our IT staff. Our IT staff is already very limited anyway. We've always worked smart and don't work where we don't have to work. For example, in 2019, we were more than 60. There are 14 of us now, and we still do the same amount of work. Cisco ISE hasn't contributed to less workload. We do it with automation. We have a lot of Linux, so we do automation on all of our stuff. 

Overall, I'd rate Cisco ISE an eight out of ten.


    reviewer2212632

Critical for device administration that can be used for multiple endpoints while providing a good cybersecurity resilience

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco ISE for device administration with TACACS.

How has it helped my organization?

It's a very critical system. It is one of the most critical systems that we have.

What is most valuable?

With TACACS, we use it for endpoints like computers, devices, and network access. As a device admin, we use it to cater to users who use routers and switches.

What needs improvement?

It is a good product for what it does. I don't have a similar experience with other solutions.

The solution cannot be deployed on the cloud yet, and that is one of the things I would like to test. Also, I want to have a couple of VMs integrated with the solution.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Identity Services Engine for about six to seven years.

How are customer service and support?

We contact support when there are problems. We take care of small things on our own. When we call for support, we need someone more experienced than us. Usually, that's a challenge. It takes days to get to the right people.

How long it takes to resolve an issue after getting to the right person is something that depends on the issue. If you get to the right person quickly, then it will be quick, but sometimes you have to keep escalating it. Within Cisco's team, they will have to go to someone who has answers to everything. Considering Cisco has a way of identifying issues that they have already worked on when I call them, it's as if I'm reporting that issue for the first time. 

I'm pretty sure other customers have reported the same problems before but it reflects as a new issue. Then you find out later that there was a bug in it. That means other customers have had the same issue. Cisco actually knows about the issue, and they have provided guidance for it. It takes time. Somehow, within Cisco, maybe AI is the way to go. It is better to make available quick customer service, especially if it is a known issue so that we can get a resolution or work around quickly.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup process is complex since there are so many big components. It depends on a lot of other systems starting from the device to the end user. That's quite complex. Also, if something goes wrong, it is challenging since it needs someone who knows about the endpoints to get things right.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Hardware appliances are expensive. The license pricing was good when it was perpetual. But now they have migrated into DNA-styled licensing. We haven't bought the new licensing yet because we migrated from the old licensing to the new licensing model. At some point, we'll have to buy the licenses. The license pricing was fair. Now moving to DNA-styled licensing, we have subscription-based licensing for everything. I hope it will continue to be fair, but we will have to wait and see.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not look for other solutions in the market. We went straight with Cisco.

We don't consider switching to another product. Cisco Identity Services Engine is the best in the market. The solution is the best for the things that we use.

What other advice do I have?

Whether in terms of user experience, user interface, ease of use, and things like that, if I was to speak about something specific that I really value about the solution, I would say that upgrade processes are not simple. It's easier to just restore the state by going through the steps for the upgrade. We also use VMs and a couple of hardware appliances since sometimes we run into certain issues that nobody knows about. We've had a couple of incidents that were challenging. Cisco blamed it on VM infrastructure, while our VM team blamed Cisco. We were stuck in the middle. We had to re-provision a couple of things. All this was because sometimes it is buggy.

It hasn't really helped free up my IT staff for other projects. 

It helped my organization improve its cybersecurity resilience by making sure that untrusted devices are not connected to the network and only trusted devices get connected.

To those planning to use the product, I would say that it's a good product. You must plan ahead, test thoroughly, and do it step by step. Don't try to migrate everything at once. It is an overall good product.

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises


    reviewer2212611

Works seamlessly and provides insights into authentication issues

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use the solution for RADIUS authentication, device authentication, and TACACS. We also use it for Wi-Fi and guest portals.

What is most valuable?

I like the logging feature. I like that I can look at the logs for authentication issues.

What needs improvement?

I don't like the fact that we can see the logs only for 24 hours. Maybe that happens because of the way we set it up.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for six years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability solution is really good. Once we get it up and running, it's great. We have to do a major upgrade, and I'm not as thrilled with the upgrades as I am with just a day-to-day job integration. Upgrades aren't my favorite thing.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product’s scalability is great. We do not have any issues. We could scale it up without any problems.

How are customer service and support?

Sometimes support is better than others. It depends on who you get. Some guys are really sharp, and for some guys, it takes a little bit longer to get the thing escalated.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used Secure ACS, which was a Cisco tool. Cisco discontinued support for it, so we switched to Cisco Identity Services Engine.

What was our ROI?

The product runs. It does what it needs to do, and we don't have to touch it most of the time. From that standpoint, we have an ROI.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

The product didn't really have a whole lot of competitors at the time. Aruba ClearPass was probably the only other competitor. We were getting rid of Aruba from our wireless. Identity Services Engine was just farther ahead than ClearPass at that time.

What other advice do I have?

We have a lot of things we use for detecting threats. We use the product more for authentication issues and stuff like that. We don't use it to identify threats per se. We have other tools.

The solution helps free up our IT staff. There are only a couple of us who are Cisco Identity Services Engine administrators. In that way, other people can do other things. Once we set up the solution, there's really not a whole lot of maintenance to it. I don't know how many hours it saves. It just works, and we don't have to touch it most of the time. It does its job.

We were using Cisco ACS before using the product. We changed tools and upgraded. The tool helps us improve cybersecurity resilience. We use it for RADIUS and to validate users. There are a lot of tools that we use. Cisco Identity Services Engine is a good tool. It does 802.1X and RADIUS very well. Cisco shop is the way to go.

Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.


    reviewer2212608

Significantly improves our security and has been great for segmenting our traffic and getting the users into the right VLANs

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use Cisco ISE to authenticate users or devices onto the network and then drop them into the appropriate VLANs to isolate them and maintain network segmentation.

How has it helped my organization?

Cisco ISE has been a great tool to segment our traffic and get the users into the right VLANs. It definitely does free up a lot of time from manual configurations.

It has definitely improved our security a lot. We used to be a single flat network, and now, we are a segmented network where we have all our different traffic isolated so that in case we do get a breach, not all the customers are affected.

Cisco ISE has been great for securing our infrastructure from end to end so that we can detect and remediate threats. We've already seen it detect some devices that we didn't know about, and they quarantine those devices, allowing us to take the appropriate security actions against them.

Our IT staff has been freed up for other projects with Cisco ISE because we're able to do a little bit more automated configuration. We just throw out a single configuration to the ports, and then the users get dropped into whatever VLAN they need to be in without us having to go to each site and configure these things manually. On a usual workday, it has freed up at least a couple of engineers for two to three hours.

Our cybersecurity resilience has improved with Cisco. Users are now segmented. We have firewalls in between, so we can take a look at all the traffic. We have quarantine enabled in there so that if we get a device on our network that we don't recognize, we can lock it down.

What is most valuable?

The feature that I found most valuable is profiling. We use that to profile certain types of devices, and then depending on the manufacturer, drop them into the appropriate VLAN without us having to go in and manually add the devices.

What needs improvement?

We would definitely like to see a little bit of an improvement in the web GUI navigation. Some of the things are a little bit hidden in the drop-down menu. If we could get a way to get to those quicker, it'd be much more useful.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using Cisco ISE for about three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, from what we've been using, we haven't had any problems even with any of the additional patches that we've added. It has been great.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise, it's great. We have plenty of space to add additional nodes. Right now, the ones we do have are not being utilized to a hundred percent, so if we ever do need to add additional, it seems pretty straightforward.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco support has been pretty good over the years, helping us get this stuff up and running. It has definitely taken us a while, and some of the cases have been pretty long, but Cisco support has been pretty good. I'd rate their support a nine out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We weren't using anything in place of Cisco ISE previously. We were pretty lacking in that department. When we got Cisco ISE, we improved our security significantly.

We went for Cisco ISE based on a suggestion from one of our vendor partners who helped us with our network refresh. They said that Cisco ISE was something that they had used previously in lots of larger deployments, and they had seen great success with it.

How was the initial setup?

I was involved in its deployment. It was pretty straightforward. A lot of the issues that we ran into were related to coordination with the users just because it was a change for them, but the actual deployment and everything else were pretty straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We used MTT. They were great. They walked us through the whole process. They designed the network refresh for us as well as the Cisco ISE integration portion of it.

What was our ROI?

We've seen an ROI. We've freed up some hours, so those engineers who were previously doing more mundane tasks are now able to do something else.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

I don't know too much about the actual pricing on it. The licensing part is pretty straightforward. It's a lot more simple than some of the other Cisco licensing models. In that aspect, it's great.

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I'd rate Cisco ISE a nine out of ten.


    Roy Pinheiro

Helps secure my infrastructure from end to end

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We use it for access control in our organization for network control and the guest portal of the guest users who access the wireless network.

How has it helped my organization?

Cisco ISE has improved our security. It's very important to us since we are a banking entity. Security is one of the most important aspects of our architecture.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the provisioning of the device so as to ensure that they are compliant with the security policy that we need to have.

What needs improvement?

I believe that Cisco can improve the way its policies are built because they're a little complex. If the operation teams do not have not a very good understanding of the solutions, they can break something because it's not so easy to view their policies through their eyes.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Identity Services Engine for six years.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco's support team does a good job. Sometimes they take a long time to solve a problem, so it's difficult for us. But in general, it's a good solution with good tech support. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We are using Juniper. We are also using Cisco, which is the main vendor. Before, a solution for web portal access was deployed by our internal team, and we moved it back to Cisco. We chose Cisco because, as a NAC solution, it made sense to us since it keeps things together in the last single tool.

How was the initial setup?

The product's implementation was done by my team, along with handling virtual operations too. The setup is simple to do. However, the policies of the solution are a bit complex.

What other advice do I have?

Regarding how the solution helps me secure my infrastructure from end to end, I would say that it is a good solution for us. We are also using all the features Cisco ISE has.

I don't believe it does save my IT staff any time because we need to build the policies and follow the configuration, then follow the user access.

After getting rid of other products, my company was able to save some money.

Regarding the solution's ability to consolidate tools and add to my security infrastructure, I would say that because Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) was able to get rid of those other products, it did help secure my infrastructure.

It did improve my company's cybersecurity resilience because we have deployed the solution as a high-availability solution. So if we lose one of the boxes, the other one, we all remain to stay in the job.

I would absolutely recommend the solution since it helped us a lot to improve our security and put some tools together in a single pane of glass to support and troubleshoot it. So it's easier to do that.

Regarding if the solution was able to integrate well with other solutions, I do not think we have any integrations at this moment, but I know that Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) has a lot of integrations.

I rate the overall solution a nine out of ten.


    reviewer2212545

Acts as a network access control solution and mitigates a lot of potential attack factors

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We primarily use Cisco ISE as a network access control solution. We do a lot of quarantine actions from our CSOC. We use the AnyConnect VPN by setting multiple deployments for dedicated purposes, where we use it to provide wireless.

How has it helped my organization?

Cisco ISE has brought a level of visibility that my organization hadn't had beforehand. At the same time, it has mitigated a lot of potential attack factors and brought in a sense of control in the hardware during the onboarding process.

What is most valuable?

I found the CMDB Direct Connect in Cisco ISE 3.2 the most promising feature for my use case. We have a lot of wired map devices and having an externally approved source to validate if a machine is legitimate or approved to be on the network is extremely valuable for us. It helps make the whole process of authorizing endpoints quick.

What needs improvement?

Cisco ISE's real-time data analytics for database logging could be improved. Earlier, you didn't have direct read access to the database. You'd have to rely on logs through some other sources like Splunk and be able to put everything that you want together. Being able to review logs in real-time, customized to your filtering, adds a lot of context and visibility.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Identity Services Engine for about four and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I do not like the stability of Cisco ISE in the virtual environment. That might have been more of an underlying host issue rather than an ISE issue. But we've moved to hardware right now, and I wouldn't have looked back. The next place we're looking to explore is potentially in the cloud, but that's still up in the air because our environment is not small. We're one of the larger 700,000-plus endpoints.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cisco ISE's scalability is nice. However, not many people can deploy Cisco ISE in a very large environment. In other words, there are no large environments that are hitting around 100,000 plus clients for active concurrent sessions. If you're trying to create multiple deployments to distribute the workload evenly, I don't like that there's no centralized management platform for Cisco ISE. You still have to go into each deployment and do your configuration.

How are customer service and support?

From my account team, I rate Cisco ISE's technical support ten out of ten. However, from a tech perspective, if I'm talking to tech level one, tech tier one, or tech tier two, I'd have to give it a six out of ten. Once you start getting into the more advanced tiers and even the business units, the support goes through the roof.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I've always worked with Cisco ISE. However, in my organization, there's another part of my infrastructure where they use Forescout. The way Forescout implements a NAC solution differs vastly from how Cisco ISE does it. The way Cisco ISE does it is more ingrained in the whole radius process and enhances the security features on a switch or wireless line controller.

Our organization chose to go with Cisco ISE instead of Forescout because, holistically, the solution checked all the boxes needed for a NAC solution.

How was the initial setup?

I was not involved in our organization's first iteration of Cisco ISE. We've since migrated and modernized our Cisco ISE deployment, and I've been heavily involved in that. 

The ease of deployment depends on the environment you're deploying in, understanding what use cases you have out there, and understanding what kind of endpoints you're exposed to or exposing your network.

Overall, Cisco ISE's initial setup is not overly complicated right now. But since our organization is moving into a multi-vendor or managed services contract, we're bringing in many vendors like Meraki, Juniper Mist, Aruba, and Fortinet. That's when things get complicated because they don't all use the same type of authorization results.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented Cisco ISE in our organization directly through Cisco. My experience with Cisco has been phenomenal because they listen. We've run into many technical issues, but they've been at our beck and call and have been there to support us to a point where they've rushed certain fixes. We've had a couple of engineering specialits because of things we've encountered. They worked hard for us.

What was our ROI?

The product is positive regarding a return on investment, considering the cost we're bringing in for Cisco ISE's deployment versus the value we're adding to the environment.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

According to my sales and account team, the prices we're getting are pretty good. I wouldn't say they're the manufacturing or listed price by any means, but we do a lot of business with them. So the price points that they're coming in at are pretty manageable.

What other advice do I have?

When it comes to securing our infrastructure from end to end so that we can detect intermediate threats, a lot of it has to do with integrating Cisco ISE with other products. For example, Cisco ISE primarily deals with either the access layer or remote connections. However, when you start integrating it with other things like titration or secure network analytics, you can get a bigger grasp of the overall picture. When you bring other security teams into it, they can start creating their policies, alerts, etc. They can start automating some of the incident mitigations and stuff like that.

My use case is a little bit different in that there's no end to our work. There are a lot of other business groups within my organization that aren't complying with what the network security policy should be. So I have to reach out to them and get them to use a dot1x protocol or ensure that their stuff is in our CMDB database.

We're in a big migration and shift in our overall security policy. So there's a lot of moving aspects going on right now. However, as we start getting things moved into an MDM, as we start getting things moved into using a dot1x protocol, we can get an active identity of an endpoint.

Cisco helps reduce the amount of staff we have to chase down and figure out what kind of policies should be implemented. We can then incorporate our onboarding process into that, preventing unauthorized devices from connecting in or at least be reassured that if anything that we haven't had any chance to look at connects in, we can deny it with confidence. Down the road, it'll alleviate a lot of the time and planning we're doing right now.

My organization is a bit different. I've tried to get them onto the posture feature of Cisco ISE, but they're pursuing other vendors for that. We've decided to incorporate through a pxGrid integration with other applications such as Tanium, Forescout, or whatever application my security organization uses. They can pull contacts from the Cisco ISE endpoint and then be able to issue a quarantine action to Cisco ISE on that particular endpoint.

Overall, I rate Cisco ISE ten out of ten.


    Josh Calhoun

Helps secure our infrastructure, provides detailed reports, and streamlines the way we add new devices to our wireless network

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We utilize Cisco ISE for wireless user authentication, as well as authentication, authorization, and accounting for our network devices.

How has it helped my organization?

Cisco ISE has made us much more secure. It has streamlined the process of adding new devices to our wireless network, specifically wireless-only devices. Moreover, thanks to scripting capabilities and flexibility on the Cisco ISE side, it has significantly reduced the amount of manual effort required by everyone involved.

Cisco ISE effectively secures our infrastructure from end to end, enabling us to detect and remediate threats. It does a commendable job of securing both end users and their devices, including guest-wired devices for anonymous access. Its ability to compartmentalize everything makes it incredibly convenient, and the comprehensive tracking features are particularly valuable.

Cisco ISE has helped to free up our IT staff's time by saving approximately 40 hours per month, as we are constantly uploading new devices. 

Cisco ISE has helped our organization improve its cybersecurity resilience by authenticating users. It ensures that only certain MAC addresses can be on our network, particularly on our production wireless network. Additionally, it keeps track of authentication frequency and alerts us if clients authenticate too often, allowing us to optimize CPU cycles.

What is most valuable?

The live logs and live sessions for troubleshooting are the most valuable features because they provide a detailed report of any issues. I appreciate that they guide us through every step that a user or authenticator goes through.

What needs improvement?

Cisco ISE can become quite complex, especially with policy sets, the entire authentication process, and everything involved. I would appreciate a more comprehensive visual depiction of the steps from the beginning to the end.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco ISE for five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We have never experienced any stability issues with Cisco ISE.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can scale Cisco ISE by adding additional licenses or servers.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco technical support is excellent. They respond promptly, and their thoroughness is remarkable. For instance, we can send them numerous logs, and they will analyze them in detail for us.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return on investment around the soft cost, with how streamlined everything is, how we don't have to really worry about wrong devices getting on our production Wi-Fi.

What other advice do I have?

I give Cisco ISE a ten out of ten.

Cisco ISE is a great tool. It integrates well with Active Directory and numerous other components. The solution has become a fundamental part of our network and I recommend Cisco ISE to others who are looking to improve their cybersecurity.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

On-premises


    Alan Berns

Scans all the programs on the workstations, enforces data loss prevention and security

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

We utilize Cisco ISE for authentication by employing the AnyConnect Posture model to address vulnerabilities on the workstations. Additionally, we make use of TACACS.

How has it helped my organization?

It is a mature solution and it grows with our needs.

Cisco ISE has helped consolidate DNA Center.

Cisco ISE helps our cybersecurity resilience by enforcing security over the workstations.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is AnyConnect Posture because it scans all the programs on the workstation and checks if the antivirus is up to date, as well as the cryptographic keys on our SSD. It also enforces data loss prevention on our workstation, which is usually the main vulnerability for network entry.

What needs improvement?

Cisco ISE has numerous features that are impractical, and I won't utilize them since they require payment.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco ISE for around four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We encountered a few bugs that were resolved using the SMUs. However, when the solution is built properly, there are no performance issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can scale Cisco ISE up using VMs.

How are customer service and support?

The technical support is excellent, and we rely on their services frequently.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We previously used Cisco ACS but transitioned to Cisco ISE because it reached its end-of-life status, and we needed to progress.

What was our ROI?

We have observed a return on investment from the tasks performed by Cisco ISE for our organization.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Cisco ISE is not inexpensive, but the solution is well-built and worth the expense.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Aruba ClearPass but ultimately chose Cisco ISE due to budgetary constraints. We were able to secure a favorable discount with Cisco.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Cisco ISE a nine out of ten. Despite the fact that the solution offers numerous features, it is challenging to use.

We do not rely solely on Cisco ISE to secure our infrastructure from end to end. Instead, we utilize various tools such as McAfee, DLP, and Endpoint Security. Additionally, we have the Domain client to check for any breaches. On our Internet edges, we perform SSL offload to enhance the performance of security projects like WAF and IPS, as well as conduct full packet scans. Furthermore, we have NGFW and NG Networks in place.

Cisco ISE is an important component in protecting our environment because it enforces security against the main point of vulnerability, which is accessing workstations. Ransomware infiltrates a network through workstations. The policies implemented are based on the posture model, ensuring that we use the necessary products on our network to mitigate such risks.

I was not involved in the initial setup, but testing the implementation of a new feature is always challenging. We need to allocate time to test it with the security team and the network team. Additionally, we need to create a separate environment to gain a better understanding of how we can improve the performance of the solution within our network. 

For organizations that do not have the funds to purchase Cisco ISE, there are good open-source solutions available. These include TACACS servers, OpenLDAP, and FreeRADIUS. However, Cisco ISE is an excellent tool for enhancing all the existing tools within an organization.


    reviewer2212527

Enabled features that were not present or possible before but it needs a lot of resources to run

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

At first, Cisco ISE was a replacement for only ACS RADIUS. It was mostly for remote access VPNs and Wi-Fi. That was it, and later, it evolved into a complete ACS replacement, so it's for both TACACS and RADIUS. Nowadays, we also deploy .1X quite a lot. 

How has it helped my organization?

It was a driver towards .1X. With the features that were there on the network side and the features that were there with Cisco ISE, it was way easier to go to .1X.

It's the brain of many things. It's the brain for VPNs. In Cisco ISE, we control where the users are allowed to go. Customers are able to do that by themselves. It's the same for .1X. It's the heart of security.

Cisco ISE improved our cybersecurity resilience. It enabled features that were not present or possible before.

What is most valuable?

For customers, it's great. It has a GUI, so the customers themselves can edit ACLs or even modify the policies. It's also an all-in-one solution with RADIUS and TACACS.

What needs improvement?

I'm frustrated by the resource consumption and how many resources it needs to run. It takes a lot of RAM. It takes a lot of space and a lot of IO power. It's frustrating to do upgrades because it takes a long time. Things are at a much smaller scale where we are than in the US. We even have smaller virtualization farms, so it takes a considerable amount of power and resources.

For how long have I used the solution?

We've been using this solution since its initial release. It was probably version 1.1 or 1.2.

How are customer service and support?

I don't remember opening a case for Cisco ISE except for the licensing problems, but several years ago, it took some time for people to get to the right way to solve the problem. I am not sure whether it was my inability to clarify the situation or whether it was a matter of poor training, but it was sometimes very painful.

How was the initial setup?

I've been working with this product for a while. It doesn't seem difficult. However, in terms of resources, it takes a while to get it running. I don't think it's necessary to be so resource-consuming and slow. That makes it complicated. 

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pricing is where things got a bit more complicated. Previously, it was a one-time purchase and we just had to renew support. These days, there's a subscription model, which is supposed to be easier and cheaper as well, but it's more pricey. Customers are aware of that, and many vendors are going the same way. They are trying to go along with the new model.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did consider other products, but it didn't make sense to go for any competing vendor because of the integration with other Cisco products. AnyConnect is the best VPN product I am aware of, and that's usually why we stick with Cisco.

We also sell HPE products. We've deployed some HPE RADIUS solutions, but we prefer Cisco these days.

What other advice do I have?

To someone researching this solution who wants to improve the cybersecurity in their organization, I would tell them to first think about what they are trying to achieve and then think about Cisco ISE as a tool. It isn't a turnkey solution.

It hasn't saved our IT staff's time. It was something that wasn't present before. It's an evolution that is necessary, but I wouldn't say it saves time.

It did help us consolidate any tools or applications. It was either a replacement of some legacy products or it was an improvement where it introduced new features that were not present before, but it didn't help get rid of some of the other products. It was a new thing to place into the network.

Overall, I'd rate Cisco ISE a six out of ten.


    Jacob Seeley

Helps enhance our cybersecurity, performs well, and helps consolidate our tools

  • June 15, 2023
  • Review provided by PeerSpot

What is our primary use case?

I utilize Cisco ISE to access the switches on our network for monitoring configurations.

How has it helped my organization?

Using Cisco ISE, we are able to control access to our networks, ensuring that only authorized individuals have access to appropriate devices. Additionally, we can restrict access to devices that should be off-limits to them.

Cisco ISE helps free up 50 percent of our IT staff's time, allowing them to work on other projects. It provides quick access when available, but delays occur when we have to wait for access to be granted.

Cisco ISE helps consolidate our tools, eliminating the need to worry about multiple passwords for the various devices in our environments by using a single password key.

The consolidation of tools makes it easy for me to access and complete my work. It also facilitates finding a solution for any problem I may encounter with the switch.

Cisco ISE has enhanced our organization's cybersecurity resilience by providing us with control over device access.

What needs improvement?

It would be helpful for us to know what needs to be deployed, configured, and what changes we need to make to our devices when we don't receive the specific login which is an indication of a lack of connection or incorrect configuration.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco ISE for one and a half years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco ISE has consistently performed as expected, and we have not experienced any stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Assisting a larger number of users in gaining access and guiding them through the process of getting on Cisco ISE has been seamless.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco support is helpful, and they have always been responsive whenever we needed assistance.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

What other advice do I have?

I rate Cisco ISE a nine out of ten.

From a user's perspective, Cisco ISE is seamless. It is extremely helpful as it reduces the amount of work required to access and control device permissions.

Our organization is a major Cisco partner, and it is logical for us to increasingly integrate Cisco products into our environment.