Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Cisco Secure Workload comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco Secure Workload are both solutions in the Cisco Security Portfolio category. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is ranked #4 with an average rating of 7.9, while Cisco Secure Workload is ranked #8 with an average rating of 9.5. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) holds a 21.4% mindshare in CSS, compared to Cisco Secure Workload’s 6.5% mindshare. Additionally, 87% of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cisco Secure Workload users who would recommend it.

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

Read 145 Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) reviews

15,137 Views
1,211 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Cisco Secure Workload

Read 15 Cisco Secure Workload reviews

4,609 Views
369 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

Cisco Secure Workload

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Executive Summary

We performed a comparison between Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Cisco Secure Workload based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Cisco Security Portfolio solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

To learn more, read our detailed Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Cisco Secure Workload Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Cisco Secure Workload

December 2025

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Helped 881,733 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...

Ranking in Cisco Security Portfolio

4th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

145

Ranking in other categories

Network Access Control (NAC) (2nd)

Cisco Secure Workload

Ranking in Cisco Security Portfolio

8th

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.7

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud and Data Center Security (8th), Cloud Workload Protection Platforms (CWPP) (15th), Microsegmentation Software (4th)

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2026, in the Cisco Security Portfolio category, the mindshare of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is 21.4%, down from 22.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cisco Secure Workload is 6.5%, down from 7.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Cisco Security Portfolio Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)	21.4%
Cisco Secure Workload	6.5%
Other	72.1%

Cisco Security Portfolio

Featured Reviews

NicolasFigaro

Network and Technology Information Manager at Akkodis

Has improved authentication management and simplified visitor network access

The log capacity in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced because today natively on the ISE can only have a look at the logs from the day before. You cannot search into the oldest logs; you have to use another tool for that. This can be blocking if you don't have any log consolidation solution. To do a search for an issue or something that happened two days ago, you cannot search directly in there. The capacity of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) could be enhanced. Something between one week and one month for the log capacity would be nice.

Read full review

Raj Metkar

Director, Head of Networks at MUFG, EMEA

Discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map

We actively seek improvements in integrating the Infoblox DDI platform with Cisco Secure Workload. This integration allows Cisco Secure Workload to learn about our networks and network tags, providing valuable insights into vulnerabilities related to the operating system and various applications installed on our servers. Recently, Cisco announced a new product called HyperShield, an AI-based autonomous micro-segmentation solution. While Cisco has not stated that HyperShield will replace Cisco Secure Workload, it represents a natural evolution for the company. HyperShield features dynamic policy discovery and enforcement; however, once policies are enforced, they do not change until a discovery occurs, requiring a re-enforcement process. This new platform operates autonomously, minimizing the need for user or security engineer intervention. I would have expected Cisco to incorporate more automatic discovery and enforcement features within the existing Cisco Secure Workload product. Instead of enhancing the current product, they have introduced a new solution. Cisco plans to honor existing Tetration licenses, allowing users to transition to HyperShield without additional costs, reflecting the investment enterprises have already made. From Cisco’s perspective, this represents a natural progression in their product line. While the product name changes, it seems more of a rebranding effort. The enhancements are greater autonomy, improved discovery, and automatic enforcement, which are now being introduced in HyperShield. Cisco Secure Workload offers automatic policy enforcement but cannot adjust policies dynamically as the application needs to change. Having used the platform for the past five years, the recent announcement has been reassuring. Cisco has confirmed that our investment in the platform will not go to waste. They will honor our existing licenses, providing a natural migration path to the new solution without any disruption

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"It is stable and easy to use."

"The most valuable feature is the flexibility of the policy sets."

"Cisco ISE is a comprehensive solution that allows you to control access to network resources granularly based on policies."

"After the product was installed, no one could access the secure connection network. In order for any laptop or any endpoint device to attach to my network, it needs to be authorized or be certified to be connected."

"We found that the most valuable features associated with this tool are posture assessment, policy management, VLAN assignments, guest assignment, and BYOD services. In addition to these services, the Cisco IOS software switch configuration feature is another very valuable aspect of the policy and compliance solution."

"The implementation is very simple."

"The most valuable features are the ability to retrieve information about Active Directory user names, viewing the log files to see which MAC address tried to connect with the created SSIDs, portal designing for your company, hotspot tools, and creating network rules for WiFi access."

"Cisco ISE integrates with everything else."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pros

"The most valuable feature is micro-segmentation, which is the most important with respect to visibility."

"The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network."

"The product offers great visibility into the network so we can enforce security measures."

"It's stable."

"Generally speaking, Cisco support is considered one of the best in the networking products and stack."

"Secure Workload's best feature is that it's an end-to-end offering from Cisco."

"A complete and powerful micro-segmentation solution."

"The most valuable feature of the solution is that we don't have to do packet captures on the network."

More Cisco Secure Workload pros

Cons

"In a future release, I would like to see network access control. That is something that customers seem to be looking for."

"Since we have started, we struggled a lot to implement this solution into our network, and we opened a case a couple of times. Up until this point, nothing else needs to be improved with this product."

"The Cisco wireless controller needs to add more than one physical port."

"I would rate this solution a 7.5 out of ten. To make it a ten they should have more people on tech support. They need to invest more in the product. It's a good product. They should just work on tech support. More support for the customer. It's not that easy to get somebody to understand this product. I have had some issues with tech before for the solution. One of them brought the solution down due to some of his activity. They need to hugely invest in their tech support."

"If Cisco could grant more control, the features could be more focused on network and security administration, reducing the need for integration with other components."

"The ISE software needs to be improved so that it is easier to administer."

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

"The solution configuration is complicated for setting the infrastructure. They have improved over the years but there is still a lot of room to improve. When comparing the simplicity to other vendors, such as Fortinet and Aruba they are behind."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) cons

"There was a controversy when Cisco reduced the amount of data they kept, and the solution became quite cost-intensive, which made its adoption challenging….Although they have modified it now, I preferred the previous version, and I wish all the functionality were back under the same product."

"The emailed notifications are either hard to find or they are not available. Search capabilities can be improved."

"The product must be integrated with the cloud."

"It has an uninviting interface."

"The integration could be better, especially with different types of solutions."

"They should scale down the hardware a bit. The initial hardware investment is two million dollars so it's a price point problem. The issue with the price comes from the fact that you have to have it with enormous storage and enormous computes."

"There is some overlap between Cisco Tetration and AppDynamics and I need to have a single pane of glass, rather than have to jump between different tools."

"Secure Workload is a little complicated to use, and the dashboard isn't intuitive, so it takes a while to learn how to use it."

More Cisco Secure Workload cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."

"Cisco is moving towards a subscription service, which would mean additional costs."

"The solution is not that cheap."

"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."

"The licensing is subscription-based and based on the user account."

"If you're not going through an agreement, it's very expensive."

"I think the price is okay."

"We are running Version 2.9 because Version 2.9 of the ISE has a persistent license — it's a one-time payment. The latest version (3.1) is only available if you do a yearly subscription."

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pricing and cost advice

"The pricing is a bit higher than we anticipated."

"The cost for the hardware is around 300k."

"Regarding price, Cisco Secure Workload can be expensive if you don't have a budget. If you're not doing micro-segmentation, every extra security measure or enforcement you're putting on top of your existing environment will be an extra cost. It's not a cheap solution at all. But from my point of view, if you need to do micro-segmentation, this is one of the best tools I've seen for it. I can't compare that to Microsoft's solution because I haven't looked into it. I've looked into VMware and Cisco. Those are the only two that I know of. I didn't know that Microsoft could do micro-segmentation at all. Maybe they can, but I haven't heard anything about it."

"The price is outrageous. If you have money to throw at the product, then do it."

"The price is based on how many computers you're going to install it on."

"Pricing depends on the scope of the application and the features. Larger installations save more."

"It is not cheap and pricing may limit scalability."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Government

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	44
Midsize Enterprise	32
Large Enterprise	91

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	8

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Aruba Clearpass or Cisco ISE?

Aruba ClearPass is a Network Access Control tool that gives secure network access to multiple device types. You can adapt the policies to VPN access, wired, or wireless access. You can securely ...

See all answers

What are the main differences between Cisco ISE and Forescout Platform?

OK, so Cisco ISE uses 802.1X to secure switchports against unauthorized access. The drawback of this is that ISE cannot secure the port if a device does not support 802.1x. Cameras, badge readers, ...

See all answers

How does Cisco ISE compare with Fortinet FortiNAC?

Cisco ISE uses AI endpoint analytics to identify new devices based on their behavior. It will also notify you if someone plugs in with a device that is not allowed and will block it. The user exper...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Workload?

CloudStrike offers antivirus capabilities and firewall features for servers and VDI but lacks automatic policy discovery. This raises questions about the resources required to discover and write po...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Workload?

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Cisco Secure Workload?

When we onboarded Cisco Secure Workload, the usual use case was to discover internal application dependencies and create a dependency map for Cisco ACI. As the network team, we chose to implement A...

See all answers

Comparisons

Aruba ClearPass vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 25% of the time

Fortinet FortiNAC vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 19% of the time

Forescout Platform vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 7% of the time

CyberArk Privileged Access Manager vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 3% of the time

Portnox vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Compared 3% of the time

More Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Competitors

Illumio vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 17% of the time

Akamai Guardicore Segmentation vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 15% of the time

VMware NSX vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 11% of the time

Cisco Hypershield vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 11% of the time

Wiz vs Cisco Secure Workload

Compared 2% of the time

More Cisco Secure Workload Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

February 2026

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) report

Download Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) product report

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Secure Workload

February 2026

Download Cisco Secure Workload product report

Also Known As

Cisco ISE

Cisco Tetration

Overview

Cisco Identity Services Engine offers robust authentication, posture profiling, guest and secure access, and dynamic policy management. Known for its seamless integration with Cisco tools and network access control features, it ensures secure device and user authentication across networks.

Cisco Identity Services Engine is renowned for its capabilities in managing authentication, guest access, and policy management through segmentation. Its TrustSec functionality, alongside RADIUS and TACACS+ support, provides enhanced security, further augmented by its ability to operate in diverse environments. Its scalability and integration with Cisco solutions aid in maintaining network visibility and access control. Challenges include the complexity of initial deployments, somewhat cumbersome documentation, and limited integration in multi-vendor environments. While encountering issues in stability and updates, the demand for better analytics and straightforward troubleshooting alongside cost-effective licensing is notable.

What are the key features of Cisco Identity Services Engine?

Authentication: Secures user and device access to networks using robust authentication protocols.
Posture Profiling: Provides in-depth analysis of device compliance with security policies.
Guest Access Management: Allows controlled network access for guest users through streamlined processes.
Dynamic Policy Management: Enables automatic adjustment of security policies based on real-time data.
Segmentation via TrustSec: Enhances security levels by segmenting network traffic based on identity.

What benefits or ROI should users expect from Cisco Identity Services Engine?

Comprehensive Security: Ensures enforceable security policies across network access points.
Enhanced Integration: Facilitates seamless collaboration with existing Cisco infrastructures.
Improved Compliance: Helps meet industry security standards for network access and user rights.
Increased Visibility: Provides detailed insights into network traffic and user activities.
Device Management Efficiency: Streamlines the process of managing diverse devices within a single framework.

Industries implement Cisco Identity Services Engine primarily for network access control, ensuring secure authentication and segmentation in both wired and wireless environments. Supporting policies like bring-your-own-device and compliance standards, ISE manages identity-based access control, especially beneficial for entities that require detailed user rights management and integration within enterprise networks.

Cisco

Cisco Secure Workload is a cloud and data security solution that offers a zero-trust policy of keeping an organization’s application workloads safe and secure throughout the entire on-premise and cloud data center ecosystems.

Cisco Secure Workload will consistently provide protection by discovering workload process anomalies, stopping threats immediately, minimizing the risk threat surface, and aborting any lateral movement.

Today’s ecosystems are very elastic, and in the application-focused dynamic of today’s aggressive marketplace, Cisco Secure Workload delivers a robust security solution that works effectively with today’s most popular applications. The solution uniquely surrounds each and every workload to ensure organizations are able to keep their data, network, and applications safe and secure at all times. Cisco Secure Workload ensures that enterprise organizations can maintain secure applications by consistently building firewalls around every workload level throughout the entire ecosystem. The solution can manage applications that are deployed on containers, virtual machines, or bare-metal servers.

Cisco Secure workload is able to meet an organization's busy needs and offers flexible options such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and on-premises options. Using the Secure Workload SaaS options, users receive all the benefits of Cisco Secure Workload protection without the hassle of having to deploy and maintain the platform on premises. Users are responsible for acquiring the necessary software licensing and deploying software agents. Using SaaS, Secure Workload runs in the cloud and is operated and maintained by Cisco. This option offers the ability to scale easily and is a popular choice for SaaS-first and SaaS-only clients. Many organizations find they get the best TCO and achieve the best productivity and profitability using the SaaS options.

When choosing on-premises options, organizations choose between hardware-based appliance models (large or small form factors). Platform selection is dependent on scalability goals, the desired fidelity level of flow telemetry, and the actual number of workloads. When a user chooses to configure Cisco Secure Workload for a conversation-only flow telemetry for all workloads, each platform has the capability to scale up vertically twice the default platform scale. Additionally, with Secure Workload, it is possible for the platform to be scaled horizontally in order to satisfy the demands of extra large widely distributed enterprise environments using federation capabilities.

Cisco Secure Workload also provides a robust disaster recovery (DR) tool, which helps to make it a complete, comprehensive solution. The DR allows for continuous restore and backup capabilities that enable users to quickly remediate operations and data to a standby cluster in the event of a drastic failure or disaster.

Reviews from Real Users

“The solution offers 100% telemetry coverage. The telemetry you collect is not sampled, it's not intermittent. It's complete. You see everything in it, including full visibility of all activities on your endpoints and in your network. Other valuable features include vast support for annotations, flexible user applications, machine learning, automatic classification, and hierarchical policies.” - CTO at a tech vendor

Cisco

Sample Customers

Aegean Motorway, BC Hydro, Beachbody, Bucks County Intermediate Unit , Cisco IT, Derby City Council, Global Banking Customer, Gobierno de Castilla-La Mancha, Houston Methodist, Linz AG, London Hydro, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Molina Healthcare, MST Systems, New South Wales Rural Fire Service, Reykjavik University, Wildau University

ADP, University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC)

Buyer's Guide

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Cisco Secure Workload

December 2025

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