Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Reviews

There's a variety of customer uses for Cisco ISE, which includes securing the edge of the network.

Cisco ISE allows our customers to concentrate on other aspects of the business, knowing that much of their security is now in place.

Cisco ISE's profiling and posturing features ensure that all devices are compliant with regulatory authorities.

Sometimes some of Cisco ISE's graphical interfaces could be a little bit smoother. However, with the different versions, the product is getting better and better.

We've been using Cisco ISE for approximately seven years.

Like most products, as Cisco ISE evolves with different software versions over time, it becomes more stable and feature-rich. Initially, when it first came out, it was playing catch up with other vendors and solutions. However, now Cisco ISE is probably at the forefront of Open NAC solutions.

You can build a distributed model or architecture, and you can scale out with a number of PSN nodes. So Cisco ISE can grow as you grow.

Cisco ISE's technical support is generally very good. They have different levels of tech engineers, but their tech support is very good.

Positive

Some of our customers have considered using Juniper NAC, ClearPass, etc. They switched to Cisco ISE because they had a lot of network infrastructure in place and wanted a single vendor they could use end to end. Everybody has a good relationship with Cisco because they know that if there is a problem, their technical support team will resolve things in a quick and timely manner.

Cisco ISE is very scalable. We can do a small proof of concept and very quickly demonstrate that to customers.

Our customers have seen a return on investment with Cisco ISE. The solution has helped our customers consolidate several products into one and free up their IT staff. Also, the reporting from Cisco ISE enables them to show senior management their network's health.

The licensing could be better across all of the Cisco products. Cisco's licensing models seem to keep changing with different software versions. Cisco is moving towards a subscription service, which would mean additional costs.

Our customers are using Cisco ISE, but we're helping to integrate it into their solutions.

The end-to-end infrastructure security from Cisco AnyConnect host points is very good.

Cisco ISE has helped free up our customer's IT staff to concentrate on other projects. In the UK, where I predominantly work, a lot of the NHS staff have a lot of access switches located throughout multiple buildings. Cisco ISE probably frees up at least twenty percent of their time.

Our customers can use Cisco ISE for device administration for TACACS, RADIUS devices, and individual host appliances.

The migration from ACS to Cisco ISE has helped. Some of our customers were looking at various MAP implementations using different vendors, but we've now got I 2.1 X and MAM all built-in together.

Cisco ISE's ability to consolidate tools or applications has centralized everything and made things a lot easier and smoother for our customers to carry out their day-to-day tasks.

Cisco ISE has helped improve the cybersecurity resilience of our customers' organizations. We've always been able to integrate Cisco ISE into other products. So they're getting more security alerts, making them a lot more secure and happy with their environment.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

I have been using Cisco ISE for five years.

We have never experienced any stability issues with Cisco ISE.

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

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.

Positive

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.

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.

We use ISE primarily for RADIUS authentications on our wireless networks and VLAN segmentation for those users.

ISE makes things easier because we all work on one system and we all have the same views, so one person is not looking at a different system. We can all look at the same system and say, "Okay, go to this link." Also, you can integrate it with DNAC (Cisco DNA Center), which is something I am very into. It helps us troubleshoot from the client all the way down to the packet. DNAC can tell us, within ISE, when they're integrated, "This is the issue they're having," and we can report back.

It's great across a distributed network for securing access to all our apps and the network. We don't have to worry about which system is going through which access layer or which security system. We can just put everything into ISE. We don't have to separate the switches from the routers to the wireless. It's all just "one-stop, go." It used to be that our switches were in a separate system for authentication routers and the wireless was all on EAP. It was confusing. ISE consolidated all that.

For my use cases, the in-depth troubleshooting into why a client can't connect or why they failed, is very valuable. I can go back to someone and say, "Hey, it's not my network. It's their certificates or user error," or something else. For my coworkers the VLAN segmentation means a client got in, it dropped them into this VLAN, and that's where they belong. They can't get out. It makes things more efficient.

Also, the fact that ISE considers all resources to be external is very important. We use ISE in our retail environments for our payment sleds. We want our payment system to be secure. Zero Trust is our whole thing. It's great that everything is external to ISE and then everything has to go through the system.

The opinion of my coworkers, and it's mine as well, is that the user interface could use some tender loving care. It seems counterintuitive sometimes. If you go to the logs, it's hard to figure out which one you need to look at. My ISE admin probably has different ideas, but for us, that's the main complaint.

I've been using Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) for about 15 years.

Uptime is great. I don't have a complaint with ISE with uptime. It's been a rockstar. As far as I'm aware, we have probably had 95 percent uptime, or even 99 percent. Nothing is 100 percent. When there's an issue, it's usually not ISE.

Scalability is our issue: keeping up with the number of licenses we need for customers and clients. That's our main concern right now. Part of that is on us and part of that is on ISE.

For us, ISE is global between retail stores, warehouses, and world headquarters. Our entire wireless network of over 30,000 devices uses it. In North America alone, we have 13,000 access points and usually around 60,000 clients.

We've had some issues with support. We usually just get our account manager involved and they get the BU online.

It depends on the role of the dice and your TAC engineer and how well they understand the issue. We've had numerous cases where we decided to say, "Okay, escalate."

Neutral

We had ClearPass but we found some difficulties with it and those were things that ISE was better at, such as EAP authentication. We had some issues with how ClearPass interacted with the Cisco wireless environment. The merging of the two technologies was hard.

We have jumped around. We were Juniper, Aruba, and then a Cisco corporate environment, and then a mixed environment. We finally consolidated those between retail, warehouses, and our world headquarters, into a unified Cisco environment with ISE as our RADIUS backbone. ISE gave us what we needed to unify all of them. We finally shut down our last ClearPass server a couple of years ago.

Being fully honest, the Cisco licensing model right now is really confusing. We don't know what licenses we have where. We have Smart licensing, but the different levels are way confusing.

There are different levels for different accesses. We have an enterprise license agreement with Cisco, but all the details of what we have with those licenses get confused in the massive amount of licenses we have, or in the different license levels we have for different geos, et cetera. The Smart license portal is there, but right now, we just don't have the time or manpower to put into that.

I give it an eight out of 10 mostly because when you get in to start configuring the details, it's hard to find some stuff. Otherwise, it's a great platform.

We use Cisco ISE to set different policies for various profiles. For example, someone on their own device has a different set of policies and postures than a person on a company machine. 

Currently, we are using Cisco's dictionary for both device and user authentication. When I say "device authentication," I mean we authenticate users who access network devices. 

We consider the running policy when users want to access a data center server. The user is forwarded to the ISE servers to be authenticated, and they're given a password defined on the ISE for them according to the policy.

We have two virtual servers with different rules. For example, one is used to authenticate and audit, and the other to authorize and authenticate. And since most of our centers don't support full ISE integration, we use only some features. That means not all our users are not authenticated via the ISE.

It's easy to change and add policies.

Some of ISE's features need to be more agile. For example, we couldn't integrate our data because Cisco needs your data to be in its own format.

We implemented Cisco ISE about a year ago.

We have capacity limitations with retail, and we aren't integrating ISE for all the users. We have about 2,000 end-users that need to be integrated, and we added the entire thing to about 1,000 devices.

I rate Cisco support eight out of 10. We initially had difficulty integrating ISE with another solution we use from Huawei. We deleted the existing profiles defined on ISE and lost our definitions and profile features that were there before. We ordered the platform through these resellers, but they haven't been helpful, so we get more support from Cisco. They are very good.

Positive

Setting up this solution wasn't that difficult for me because I was involved with all of these projects. We implemented everything last year and deployed a portion of the modules integrated into our environment. It wasn't that difficult to install and apply to get these permissions.

A contractor came to help us deploy everything as part of the bank's data center solution. Since then, I have installed one of the components that we deployed at the time. It was a local tech company that got the platform given to them. That's how they got everything implemented with it together.

The return on investment depends on how you utilize the solution. We haven't utilized it well thus far, so I would rate it four or six out of 10.

There is a limit on the number of nodules supported. The number of users per license is limited to around 2,000, so the license price should be adjusted to take these limitations into account or we should be allowed to add more users to the same devices.

We use ISE because most of our networking devices are from Cisco, including the VIRL lab. I have to compare other vendors, but I don't think the cost difference is so much that I would switch solutions. 

I rate Cisco ISE eight out of 10. It works fine in our experience. 

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

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

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.

I have been using the solution for six years.

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.

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

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.

Neutral

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

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

Right now we use Wireless.1X and TACACS for device management. It's in our wired network too, but only use it for MAC address bypass.

It has helped to consolidate tools and applications. Previously, we had Windows NPS in some places and then Cisco ACS in other places. Now, Cisco ISE is all I use. This consolidation hasn't had a whole lot of impact on our organization. It wasn't that big of a deal to begin with.

It works as a good RADIUS server. It has lots of features. It works with all the proprietary Cisco AB pairs and features.

It could be less monolithic. It's one huge application, and it does everything under the sun, so it's hard to deal with and upgrade and manage.

I've been using Cisco ISE for three or four years.

Overall, it's pretty stable.

It seems to be pretty good for what we're doing with it.

Cisco TAC support is hit or miss. It depends on who you got. I'd rate them a six out of ten.

Neutral

We didn't have any network access control. For the wireless, we had ACS, and some places used NPS from Windows.

We chose Cisco ISE because we have a Cisco network. It seemed like the obvious choice.

The initial setup was pretty easy, but trying to get all the switches to talk to ISE was pretty complex. It required a lot of configuration and learning, and we found a lot of bugs and issues along the way.

Initially, we took the help of Presidio. They were good. They knew a lot about it and helped us a lot. 

In terms of detection and remediation of threats, it wouldn't detect anything. If we integrated it with other products, it could cut certain clients off from the network, but we haven't gotten that far yet.

It hasn't helped to free up our IT staff. It has probably consumed more time.

I don't have a lot of familiarity with other products, so I'd rate it a six out of ten.

We use it for NAC and wireless, and for our TrustSec policy. These are the three primary use cases we have so far.

It's a network access control solution for us. Previous to Cisco ISE, we didn't have one, so, from a security standpoint, it increased our security visibly.

It has enhanced our security. We have a solution now that can protect us at the access layer, which we didn't have before.

It has helped to consolidate any tools or applications. We only have to use one product for RADIUS, TACACS, and authentication servers. NAC and other things are consolidated into one system, which is nice.

It has helped our organization improve its cybersecurity resilience. The security at the access layer through NAC has been nice, and then the ability to enforce policies dynamically using profiling and NAC and TrustSec is good.

With NAC, the profiling feature is valuable. We're able to see what we have out there in the network and dynamically assign policies to it. We can then use that to enforce TrustSec policy or anything else with NAC. 

There should be more visibility into TrustSec policy actions. When TrustSec blocks something or makes any kind of changes to the network, we don't always see that. We have to log into the switch itself, or we have to get some type of Syslog parsing to do that. Cisco DNA Center may do it, but it would be better if that was integrated into Cisco ISE.

In terms of securing our infrastructure from end to end so we can detect and remediate threats, it's a little bit difficult in terms of visibility, but, generally, we would just go through the logs and see if there's a problem or not.

I've been working in this organization for three to four years, and they have been using it prior to my joining. 

It's very stable for us.

It isn't something we have had to deal with.

They're pretty good. Compared to others, Cisco is probably above average. With Cisco TAC, usually, if the first level doesn't resolve it, you can get up to a higher level within a day or two, which is better than a lot of other vendors we've been working with lately, such as Palo Alto. Cisco tech support is doing pretty well. I'd rate them a seven out of ten. Being able to access higher-level engineers and escalate things more quickly is always going to improve any case.

Neutral

Before Cisco ISE, we didn't have a similar solution.

It was implemented before I joined, but it was probably phased. It was first for wireless and then became more of a NAC thing. It was a long process. It was somewhat difficult just because of how much was required of it. I don't think it was particularly painful.

We get a return on investment from it. It's a solution that's often required for IT insurance, etc. It's definitely needed but do we need to have one from Cisco? I don't know, but there's definitely an ROI there.

To someone researching this solution who wants to improve cybersecurity in their organization, I'd say that make sure you know what you're getting into. Understand and have a good plan going into it and have operational support for not just networking, but also help desk and other IT teams before deploying this solution.

I don't know if Cisco ISE has saved us any time because it's an enhancement to our security that we didn't have before. It probably takes a little more time than not having it. Having no security is super easy because you don't have to worry about anything, but if you have any security product, you have to do work to support that.

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