Cisco Duo Reviews

We use Duo Security to level up security and access to internal systems.

Duo Security has provided us with heightened security. That's the biggest benefit because, nowadays, security risks are big due to hacking. This solution narrows down a lot of things that we have to go through.

If you have to log in to something, you must go to Duo Security to confirm that you're who you are on your phone. From there, you go back to the app, and it allows you access.

When you come to the push in Duo Security, there are some integrations where you have to use the code instead of the push functionality. Sometimes, you have to go and push from the app, go to Duo Security, and then go back over after you've accepted the push. It would be good if a seamless web comes down, you press the button at the top, and it goes away while you're still in the app.

I have been using Duo Security for about two years.

Duo Security is a pretty stable solution.

Duo Security is a scalable solution. You can easily download the app, log in, and you have access. Scaling is not an issue with Duo Security.

Duo Security's customer support is very helpful, going above and beyond what they normally need to do to get things fixed and resolved. I can always reach out to my reps, who try to figure out what's going on to help me.

Since I changed companies, I can't remember the old solution, but it was probably some Microsoft solution. It did almost the same thing as Duo Security, except that Duo Security has the push. So instead of going back and finding the code, it can easily just push to the app, allowing you access. So it's a little bit faster to access your systems than having to find these different apps.

We have seen a return on investment with Duo Security because getting hacked once would cost us millions. So investing in a solution like Duo Security saves us all that money.

Most solutions do what we're trying to use Duo Security for. It ensures a person has different access to the system via a different device like a YubiKey.

Duo Security has helped to improve our organization's security posture through reassurance in giving out access. Having something like Duo Security on the back end can help pinpoint who's logging in and ensure there is no random bot.

I highly recommend Duo Security because it's still seamless from my standpoint. I don't know how it would be on the back end, but it'd be a great application for any organization wanting to heighten its security on user access.

Overall, I rate Duo Security ten out of ten.

Our primary use case is multifactor authentication for our VPN users. We didn't have multifactor authentication before. After we integrated Duo Security with our systems, everyone has been using it, and it has given us peace of mind when dealing with VPNs.

The most valuable feature of Duo Security is the ability for the user to easily approve access. The application prompts the user, and they can see the location and the IP address. This makes it easy for the user to approve it and go through the process of logging in to the VPN.

Duo Security can be used for any type of authentication apart from that for VPNs. It saves time and prevents problems because it is user-friendly.

Integration between Duo Security and FTDs needs improvement. Integrating Next Generation Firewall safety with Duo Security currently requires a proxy agent between Active Directory and the appliance. It's an additional factor that we need to think about. It would be great to have direct integration with FTD so that we don't have to worry about middleware products. For the rest of the Cisco Secure solutions, the APIs need improvement.

Duo Security needs to improve the delivery of text messages to the users. This has been a big pain point for us over the years. Though we understand that the local telecoms are the ones responsible for the final delivery of the message, there should be a way to improve the process. Some users don't use the application and rely on SMS messages. It is a problem at times because the messages are not delivered.

We've been using Duo Security for almost six years.

We use Cisco Umbrella, ISE, FirePOWER Services, Next Generation Firewalls, FTD, ASA, and Duo Security.

The stability of Duo Security is great. We receive notices for any problems or issues in a very timely manner.

The solution is generally easy to scale. If you have the ability to deploy Duo Security yourself or can leverage third-party integrators, there should not be any issues with scalability.

Cisco support for Duo Security has been great. We haven't had many cases, and most of the ones we have had were related to SMS and text messaging delays.

On a scale from one to ten, I'd rate technical support at eight. They are quick to provide solutions but can improve on working with third-party service suppliers so that end-user experience is better.

Positive

Deploying Duo in our environment was very easy because of the pre-staged configuration. It was very quick, and in one to two days, we had a VPN concentrator using Duo Security.

Duo Security was initially deployed using a consultant, but afterward, we deployed multiple additional VPN concentrators ourselves.

The return on investment has been huge in terms of protection from cyber-attacks. We have been able to protect our employees by having multifactor authentication. This is invaluable for companies in the current threat landscape.

In terms of support, it's always great to have happy users who are able to easily log in to our environment through VPN without having to bother about non-working software agents or any other type of authentication platforms.

My advice to you if you are evaluating Duo Security would be to do your research and compare it to other competitors. If you are a Cisco-oriented company, you will see that there are several benefits to using Duo Security. You will also see that it has the edge over other solutions on the market.

On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Duo Security at eight. The stability and user experience are great, but there's room for improvement in terms of text message and SMS delivery.

We mostly use it for our AnyConnect VPNs and two-factor authentication.

We use Firepower Defense as a firewall, and we have implemented the IPS system on the firewall. Previously, we had ASA, and two-factor authentication was with the code, but now, it's with a push notification. It has somehow made it easier for non-IT employees to easily connect to the VPN, but it, as such, hasn't saved any time. It didn't reduce any tasks. 

It hasn't helped consolidate any tools or applications because we're not using any other security components that can be integrated with it.

The two-factor authentication is valuable because that is the use case for which we are using it.

We first deployed Duo Security for our company with the VPN, and afterward, about a year later, we implemented it for a customer of ours where we offered infrastructure as a service. When I tried to establish a VPN connection through Duo Security, it did not function well on that version, which was the latest one at the time. So, I had to make a copy of the machine and then implement Duo Security with the VPN because it did not function well with the newer version. I didn't know why, but it did not function. I haven't tried to update it since then, but that could be an area of improvement.

I've been using Duo Security for almost four years.

It's stable.

It has good scalability.

They were helpful and fast 90% of the time. They have knowledgeable tech engineers. We didn't have many problems, but any problem that required a case to be opened was resolved quickly. I'd rate their support a nine out of ten.

We didn't use a similar solution previously. We went for this solution because of the consistency of Cisco products and the best cases that it provides. It fulfills our needs as a company.

It was straightforward. I had some issues, but mostly, I followed the complete path from sandboxing to testing and then going live in production.

We have two people, me and my colleague, but it's mostly me.

I am not involved in its pricing, but we haven't yet seen an ROI.

I'd recommend using it. You can read about the product and implement your infrastructure.

I'd rate Duo Security a 10 out of 10.

We use Duo Security for two different parts. One is for access to one of the servers, and the other one is for accessing the VPN connection.

It helped free up the time of IT staff. It helped them to manage the control within the users. They can control who gets access to which part of the system. For example, if there is a group of people who need a certain type of permissions, they can set them up easily. They can gather them in groups and give specific permissions. They can also give specific permissions to only one person.

It has been very useful in detecting or fixing threats that come into the organization.

It's a good thing for the authentication of your credentials. It's easy to use for the security part, and it helps to improve our security posture.

They can make authentication easier. It should be done in a shorter time. Sometimes, it can take a bit more time to get the answer on your phone. You have to wait a bit longer to get the SMS code and other things. There can be some internet or connection issues. They should make it faster because sometimes, it's urgent, and you need to access something as soon as possible.

I have been using this solution for about two years.

In general, all Cisco products, not just the Duo product, have a lot of stability.

Their tech support is pretty good, but there are some disadvantages. Sometimes, they take a long time to answer. I understand that some of the issues are not very easy, and it takes time to research them. I'd rate them an eight out of ten.

Positive

We didn't use any non-Cisco products. We were only using Cisco products. The IT part of our organization is using the Duo authentication system, and we are using another part of the server for authentication.

It's not very hard. It doesn't take long. The IT gives us an access code for it. 

I just downloaded the app, and after that, just got the security code from that department. I entered that, and it was done. That's it. If you are changing your device and they're just resetting your data, it can take two or three minutes maximum for a new device.

I'd rate Duo Security an eight out of ten.

Our primary use case for Duo Security is all user access to email.

Duo Security improved my organization by helping us secure all access points within the company infrastructure. 

Duo Security helped our company consolidate tools, including email and VPN.

What I find most valuable about Duo Security is that it is our one-stop application for multiple MFAs. 

Duo Security could be improved with the addition of more applications. 

Duo Security has not helped free up our IT department's time.

I have been using Duo Security for six months.  

Duo Security's stability is perfect.

Duo Security's ability to scale is perfect. We have 5,000 people using it in four countries. 

I have never used Duo Security's support. 

We previously used integrated multi-factor security from Microsoft 365 and Fortinet FortiToken. We made the switch to Cisco because we wanted to handle everything in one application.

I was not involved in the initial deployment. I do know however that 10 people were involved in the deployment. 

We have seen a return on investment because with Duo Security, we do not have to pay for multiple applications. Instead, we pay for one solution. 

The cost of Duo Security licensing is OK. 

Duo specifically offers good MFA functionality. We needed support for our VPN and used GlobalProtect as well as Duo for additional security.

Duo has allowed us to add an additional layer of security to our organization. It prevents people from gaining access unless they have your credentials as well as a device. It has allowed us to establish trust for every access request and secures our environment. We are confident and comfortable with the way the solution handles this. We have tried other solutions but they've not met our expectations.  

Duo Security does a good job of helping to support our organization across a distributed network. It does a fantastic job at securing access to applications and networks. It is streamlined and straightforward.

Duo Security provides single-pane-of-glass management.

This solution has been most valuable for locking up our VPN solution and providing secure web protection. 

We have a 24 hour timer for our Duo cookie and we would like to reduce this to a shorter time when using Duo. We use Duo together with GlobalProtect and I am not sure which solution would be responsible for this improvement. 

I have been using Duo Security for the entire time I've been employed at my company.

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. We have 20,000 users covered by this solution. 

We have not needed much help from the Duo support team. Using this solution has been surprisingly easy for us. 

We were running a different solution on a test gateway we had and it didn't meet our expectations so we moved to Duo. We have previously tested XAML. 

You pay per user when using this solution and the pricing is fair.

We have never had an issue in maintaining network connectivity across all workplaces. Duo Security has helped remediate threats more quickly and offers security end to end. Cybersecurity resilience is probably one of the most significant elements of organization because we work in the healthcare industry.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. This is because we have not had any vulnerability that has been exposed to or any other issues that we've had to deal with.

We mostly use it for multi-factor authentication with email platforms like Office 365 as well as other apps.

We were looking to deal with email phishing attacks and brute force attacks, and the like, and Duo has helped a lot. We're more secure with multi-factor and have seen the number of phishing attacks and brute force attacks go down.

Logging in with Duo is baked into anything that we log into, including any applications, email, and web apps. We integrate it with a product called Jump Cloud, which is our cloud-based identity management system. We have also integrated it into WebEx and Box. Duo runs all of our security and MFA, and it's worked out well.

It's helped a lot of our customers with multi-factor in their identity management systems, on-prem and in the cloud. That way, when users log in, they get the MFAs to be able to log in to any resource on the network.

And because everybody is working remotely now, Duo checks all the boxes for hybrid work.

When it comes to remediating threats, it has helped us do so quickly. We don't even see a lot of the threats anymore because it's working behind the scenes. It has definitely decreased the number of threats in the last year compared to what we used to see.

The ease of use and the ease of management of all the users have been key for us. The setting up of devices in Duo has been really easy as well. It's better than all the other ones I've worked with.

Another important feature is that Duo considers all resources to be external because even the internal ones look like external ones, and people click on stuff and get caught. It's very important to be more cautious than ever.

Also, the single pane of glass management works very well. That feature is very important because we have a lot of admins who have to manage Duo, and it's much easier when it's a single pane of glass. That single pane is also great because it's easy to enroll new devices.

One area that might be improved is that setting up SMS texting is not as easy as using the app, even though it does support it.

Also, a faster management user interface would help. It tends to lag a little bit.

I've been using Duo Security for three or four years.

It has been stable. We haven't really had many issues with it. It maintains network connectivity across all workplaces and works great. I don't have any complaints.

It can scale to as many employees as you have. It can go from five employees to 1,000 employees. I don't see any issues with the scalability.

Their technical support is great.

Positive

We did not have a previous solution.

The initial deployment was pretty straightforward. We had a small number of challenges, but nothing we couldn't get by. It was pretty smooth, overall. Setting it up and enrolling new devices into the environment was a breeze. That was the easiest thing.

We do it ourselves.

We see ROI in that users feel more secure and their morale goes up. You get to keep those employees a lot longer if they feel better working for an organization that's investing in security. A big benefit is keeping your employees.

Everybody loves it. They feel a sense of security when they get that prompt to send them a text, or an email. It makes them feel like they're working for a company that is really taking the time to secure the environment. It gives them a good feeling when they get a second form of authorization.

The pricing is pretty competitive. It's pretty cheap. Anybody can adopt it. We don't have customers that haven't used it because of the price.

We evaluated Microsoft Authenticator and Google Authenticator. With those solutions, you don't have the granularity of management of the MFA environment that Duo offers.

Our Duo is all cloud-based, there's nothing on-prem. We typically integrate it with our cloud apps.

Resilience in cyber security is a game-changer. We have the same challenges that every organization goes through with security: phishing attacks, ransomware attacks, et cetera. I wouldn't say it has eliminated 100 percent of them, but it definitely cuts a lot of that stuff out. Every organization should have something like Duo, or MFA in general. But if they're going to do it, they should do it with Duo just because it's so easy to manage and it is resilient.

For management that wants to build more resilience within their organization, they have to implement multi-factor authentication across that organization for everything. It shouldn't just be for email but everything internally as well. 

With Duo, MFA allows the network to have an authenticated user sign-on seamlessly. If someone's entering a password and their user credentials and they want to get access to the network, the Duo app will have a code that the end-user has to input, which then authenticates them. It's a second layer of security before they can access the network. Even if a third party gets your username and password, without that Duo access, they won't be able to access your network.

We don't have to worry so much about the end-user that's logging in.

Multifactor authentication is the most valuable feature.

As for establishing trust for every access request, that's exactly what this solution does. Outside of having a username and password, you have to get authentication from Duo as well.

You can never eliminate trust, but what Duo Security does do is add an extra layer of security. When it comes to the internet, networks, inbound traffic, and outbound traffic, you're always subject to a potential threat. Duo Security just adds another layer.

It's a great addition to the security of any network infrastructure.

In terms of helping workers feel safe, everyone knows that the information within the enterprise is safe because the people that are logging in have been authenticated in more than one way.

It's pretty easy to maintain network connectivity once it's set up; the end-user uses it to log in. It's not something that you have to constantly manage and deal with apart from pushing updates. It's pretty much self-managed.

In terms of consistency across workspaces, it works all the time, except for when a forced update is needed.

It helped us remediate threats more quickly. For instance, if someone accesses your credentials or you leave your laptop open and someone gains access when it times out, you still need the Duo code that is sent. A new code is always needed to be able to access that laptop or even that phone. Then, from there you're able to safeguard the information that your company has.

Nowadays, data is the number one commodity, so protecting that at all costs is really important. Duo helps with that with end-users. The thing about end-users is that they are volatile. You can't really control what someone does. So, Duo security helps with managing that by having them implement a new time code that's always sensitive.

Technical support could be improved. I don't think all support should have to go through an agreement.

I've been using this solution for seven years.

It's very stable. There aren't many issues with Duo.

The scalability is just fine. If you scale a certain amount, you have to upgrade and update your license. Outside of that, it's fine.

We are a large organization that deals with a lot of high transactional payments, and we have a large number of users, maybe 100,000 a day, and inbound user traffic.

If you open up a TAC case and they get to you quickly, it's fine. If you have a service agreement that says that they will get back to you within one to two hours, that's fine because you can resolve an issue. Now, if you don't have that agreement and are just a regular user, they take 48 hours to get back to you, and if you and the network team or the security team can't figure out the issue, a lot of money could be lost in two days.

Because there's always room for improvement and because I don't think all support should have to go through an agreement, I would rate technical support at eight on a scale from one to ten.

Positive

Anytime your network is secure and it's not breached or there's no downtime or infiltration of your perimeter, there's always an ROI.

With regard to pricing, for a small business buying a one-off, it's pretty expensive. If it's an enterprise that has thousands of employees, however, it's really nothing to protect your data because if your network goes down or it's breached, you're losing millions of dollars every minute. When it comes to a large enterprise, it's priced where it should be because you're talking business to business. You're not talking business to consumer.

To leaders who want to build more resilience within their organization's security, I would say that you can't go wrong with Cisco products when it comes to security. You can start with Cisco Umbrella, then go down to their firewalls, and then the next-generation firewalls. Then, you can move down to their end-user security endpoints.

The whole lineup through their security portfolio is really strong. If you're spending $50,000 on a suite and a $100,000 total contract value, you can enter a 3.0 Enterprise Agreement. Then from there, you can lock in prices for one, three, to five years. So, when it comes to any enterprise, when you're talking about security, if you use all of Cisco's security features, from end-user out to your data centers, you'll be pretty well off.

If you have security concerns, implement Duo for your end-users.

Overall, I would rate Duo Security an eight on a scale from one to ten.

Essentially, we use it as a two-factor authentication for our users when they are trying to log into the corporate network or another dev network that we have.

Overall, it provides functionality and security with the two-factor authentication. We can ensure whomever is logging in isn't someone else who might be sharing a username or password.

It is a good source of security as far as ensuring that there are no rogue agents attempting to access the network. Duo has enabled us to mitigate rogue access requests to our network.

With everything that went on over the past three years, we can authenticate through the VPN, or anywhere that you are at, giving our workers the ability to work hybridly and tackle day-to-day jobs without having to come into the office.

Our workers know what they are doing is secure. They don't have to worry about buying other equipment and we don't have to worry about supplying other equipment. We can just use Duo to facilitate, making it easier to do their day-to-day jobs.

The ability to work online and offline with two-factor authentication is the best feature. Usually, with products, you have two different tokens. For this product, there is just one. 

It is a good product to assess the access. Overall, it has a timely response as far as when you need to click. It is very interactive. It is not like you have three seconds, then it is gone. It gives you the time to do it.

It provides single-pane-of-glass management, which is pretty easy and straightforward. Because we manage multiple access tiers, it allows us to essentially manage everything from one viewpoint and not have many viewpoints for the same product. This is important because it is a time and resource saver. It also saves us money.

The single-pane-of-glass management user experience is pretty good. It is one of the best ones that I have worked with so far.

The biggest challenge is integrating it into all our end user utilities. We use it for other networks, not just our personal network. So, the challenge is just integrating it across the board.

There is not much improvement as far as the front-facing part of it. For the back-end, there could be a few more security features applied. Obviously, as they grow, it will get better.

I have been using it for about seven months.

The stability works well with what we have, and we have a big Cisco infrastructure. It is pretty seamless for us.

Maintaining network connectivity with Duo is pretty easy. The timeout isn't too bad. It obviously depends on your security thresholds, but it is pretty easy.

It is pretty scalable. We have run it through its paces.

I haven't had to work with their technical support division. I am guessing it is good since I haven't had to deal too much with them.

This is the first time that I have worked in a VPN environment.

I would give it about a nine out of 10 because nothing is perfect.

When our users are connecting to our Cisco VPN, Duo effectively ensures that they are who they say they are by taking a second factor into account, such as the cell phone that was used to create their profile. To do this, it sends them a second mode of authentication, such as a PIN or push confirmation. It also geo-locks who is allowed to actually log into our systems. We have it locked to the continental United States and Puerto Rico, and one outsourcing firm that we work with.

Once you have it set up, all you really have to do is add people to a group in the active directory and send them the instructions on how to do it. If you have a lower technical user base, you may have to walk them through it. But once it's set up, it really is automatic.

Not a single person from our IT staff really needed anything other than the instructions. Of the 15 people in our test group, nobody actually needed instructions on how to use it either — beyond what I just wrote up and sent them.

As we get to the older population in our company, the less technical population, we're probably going to have to walk them through it or hold their hands a little bit.

Within our organization, there are currently 15 employees using this solution. Eventually, we will have all 221 office staff users with it set up. Still, we'll probably top out at about 80 users a day.

We will increase the overall usage as our users increase. So, if we hire another 10 people, then we'll buy another license.

The multi-factor authentication process and the geo-locking features are great. It provides us with statistics about the devices that are used to perform the second authentication factor.

Upon successful connection, it tells us where and what device is being used to perform the second authentication factor. For example, when I log in with it, we'll see that I have my iPhone 11 and that it is located in the area via its IP address.

We had some trouble with the password reset function. When a user's password is expired, you can prompt them using Cisco AnyConnect — a password management feature — to change their password in the same channel during the login process. We had a lot of trouble configuring that. As a result, we now have a second channel that bypasses Duo to allow them to reset their password.

For this, we needed Cisco support, Duo support, and our network administrator all lined up. It should have just been something that they could have just configured, but they weren't able to do it in the same channel. We had to actually create a second channel. When you do this, people will try to log on and it'll tell them that their password is incorrect. They'll realize that their password is expired because it's been 90 days. Afterward, they'll have to then go back to AnyConnect, change the channel that they're logging into, attempt to log in, get the password prompt, disconnect from the AnyConnect, and then reconnect using the Cisco Duo multifactor authentication — this is extremely complicated.

Still, it's really only a problem for a small subset of users. The ones who ignore the notifications 10 days before saying, "Hey, change your password."  So, it's not as big of a deal as it sounds. Just by having a functional way to do it, it makes it so that if nobody's on staff, the user can reset their own password without having to call us in the middle of the night on a Saturday, because that's the best time for those passwords to expire. 

Also, it would be nice if it was easier to modify the splash screen that comes up when entering your username and password.

We actually just configured Duo Security — we're in the process of pushing it out. Currently, we've been using it for the past three to four months.

Scalability is definitely up there. It could easily handle many, many, many more authentications than we are currently or ever would use. It could definitely go far beyond what we are currently using.

The technical support agents are definitely knowledgeable; they give us plenty of recommendations on how to do things. They are very quick to send us white papers describing how to fix things ourselves. 

Although they try to push us toward a self-help model, they do eventually get online with us via a WebEx chat with the Cisco reps and help us out. We've never really had any problems finding somebody from chat support that wouldn't jump on to the WebEx meetings with Cisco premium support.

We didn't have anything covering multifactor authentication. We were using Cisco AnyConnect with the tie-in to the active directory, but we just had the single factor — the username and password. Duo allowed us to greatly enhance our security. Now, not only do users have to know their username and password, but they also have to be able to receive the second-factor authentication in order to get in. The same goes for anyone trying to break in.

The initial setup was complex, but due to the support that we received during the onboarding, it was very simple with the exception of the password reset channel that I mentioned earlier that we tried to use but didn't end up doing. The way we have it set up now is actually how it was configured during the onboarding process. It just would've been nice to have had it functionally work — to have that all in one channel.

Regarding deployment, we have an in-house person, but we still had Cisco Duo onboarding support to assist us with the setup. If you have a CCNA, you'll probably be able to do it yourself, but it's just much easier to do it with onboarding support.

The functional part of the onboarding process only took roughly an hour. Including troubleshooting our channel issue, we spent roughly 16 hours before we just decided to go back to the original build.

Our licensing fee is currently on an annual basis.

There are two levels of support with Duo that we were considering. The first level of support is just the two-factor authentication — it doesn't do anything else. But the second level of support provides us with network access control. This basically allows us to say, "Hey, your iPhone hasn't been updated in 10 years, update your iPhone to continue using this service." Or, "Your Windows device does not have updates." It also provided us with the geolocation feature. We were experiencing a lot of break-in attempts from Moldavia. So, thanks to this feature, we just locked out Moldavia. If nobody in Moldavia can connect to our system, then nobody in Moldova can hack us. 

If you're interested in using this solution, be sure to get the onboarding team to set everything up during the onboarding phase. Set up a proxy server if you can and get them to do everything during the onboarding phase — then you won't have any problems.

Compared to the after-purchase support, the onboarding people are a lot more willing to just take over your computer and set things up for you.

Overall, on a scale from one to ten, I would give this solution a rating of ten — it's the best.