Share your experience using Symantec VIP Access Manager

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Positive

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

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

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

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

I use Okta Platform for single sign-on and managing the authentication process. I have used all of the geofencing features for security purposes. In the current field of cybersecurity, I have been working for seven years specifically.

My favorite aspect of Okta Platform is that it is really user-friendly. The admin configuration UI is user-friendly when you view it.

I have worked on Okta Platform's IGA features, and they were not great or up to the mark. While they were trying to get new features, it was not working as expected at that time when it was in beta. There are some features, especially on the customization side, that cannot be customized, and there are a few things that would be nice to customize as well.

I would like Okta Platform to protect non-human identities in the environment, such as service accounts.

In terms of industry or regulatory requirements, it depends on the person implementing Okta Platform. All necessary protocols need to be followed, but I don't think Okta Platform has set any templates to ensure these protocols are being followed. It would be a nice-to-have feature where they could set some templates and provide guidance on what can be implemented.

I have been working with Okta Platform for five to six years overall.

Okta Platform is stable with very few instability issues.

Okta Platform is 100% scalable.

I have had to contact technical support for Okta Platform many times.

The speed and quality of their answers depend on the nature of the issue. Sometimes it was an easy fix, and sometimes I had to do a lot of back and forth. Speed is good initially, but depending on the problem nature, it becomes a little stagnant. However, I have no complaints as I think they have been super helpful. Even if they are not able to help, it goes to another team member, but they generally try to help.

I would give the support for Okta Platform a score of seven out of ten.

I have used alternatives to Okta Platform.

I was definitely there for the initial deployment of Okta Platform, and I would rate it as medium.

A team is required for Okta Platform. I don't believe we should be dependent on one person, and there should be people from many different teams involved. Even if there is not a lot of work, in all of my projects, Okta Platform has indicated that we need people. In one or two instances, Okta Platform professionals were not there to help, but I highly recommend someone from Okta to be there to guide us through the whole process.

Okta Platform requires maintenance on my end as a customer. It is 100% the customer's responsibility to maintain all features. Even if someone is going out of the company, there needs to be deactivation, so everything needs to be maintained by customers of Okta Platform. With respect to features and patches, sometimes they release a few patches that we will have to update ourselves, but in other cases, they try to do some silent pushes. However, it totally depends on how Okta Platform chooses to do it.

Overall, regarding the pricing of Okta Platform, I think it is a little expensive.

The biggest differences that come to mind are that, positively, Okta Platform is more user-friendly, but negatively, Okta Platform is way more expensive than a few other products in the market.

I have used Ontra, Ontra ID, PingID, SiteMinder, SailPoint, and Saviant, which are not exactly competitors to Okta Platform but somewhat similar.

How long it took to finish projects with Okta Platform from start to finish depends on multiple factors. I have done many projects with Okta Platform, starting from overnight to even a week, so it depends on the customer as well, on what is being implemented, and what the go-live date is for the particular time. The deployment depends on a client-to-client basis. My overall review rating for Okta Platform is eight out of ten.