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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Logo

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco
4.1 out of 5
Badge Leader

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) provides centralized and unified secure access control, enhancing security for all devices with multifactor authentication and allowing easy integration with Cisco networking equipment.
It offers scalability and flexibility, making it suitable for environments with thousands of users, and integrates seamlessly with Active Directory for streamlined management of user access.
ISE's valuable features include posture assessment, policy management, VLAN assignments, guest access, BYOD services, and integration with StealthWatch and DNA for comprehensive network management.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) excels at automating and providing real-time visibility for proactive monitoring and management of endpoints, ensuring compliance and trust for network access.
The integration capability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) with third-party systems and its comprehensive profiling and posturing features enhance security and efficiency across organizations.

CONS

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) has a steep learning curve and complex initial setup.
Support and integration for active devices require improvement, with better compatibility across different manufacturers.
Upgrades and update processes for Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) are problematic and not user-friendly.
Licensing structure and cost of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) can be challenging and confusing.
Improved documentation and easier-to-locate best practices are needed.
 

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Pros review quotes

NF
IT Network Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Oct 7, 2025
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) has simplified guest access management for us without compromising security for our organization.
SunilkumarNaganuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Line Manager (Service Operations Expert) - Network Access Control at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Nov 13, 2024
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is very good at device administration.
John Ntambi - PeerSpot reviewer
Ag. Systems & Networks Head at UNBS
Jun 25, 2025
The policies allow us to enforce certain rules on the network to be able to screen our users more effectively.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
912,930 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Jihad Aqel - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Shabkati network solutions
Nov 7, 2024
The solution is integrated with other Cisco devices and can offer automation for an organization, making deployments more dynamic and providing real-time visibility.
JN
Technical Services Lead at Telenet Solutions
Feb 28, 2025
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is very stable.
Brad Lossing - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Network Operations at RAND Corporation
Jun 15, 2023
The solution enables us to do everything from one interface.
Adarge Ekholt - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 3, 2023
The most important feature for us is visibility in terms of user connections. It's the ability to see what devices are online for a particular user that helps a lot with our troubleshooting.
SL
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Jun 15, 2023
The solution enables us to authenticate with AD.
Solomon Okonta - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at Great Canadian Gaming Corp
Jun 14, 2023
Being able to authenticate wired users through 802.1X is valuable as it enhances our security.
Ahmed_Shalaby - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
Jan 18, 2024
The product is useful for device administration.
 

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Cons review quotes

NF
IT Network Manager at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Oct 7, 2025
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.
SunilkumarNaganuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Service Line Manager (Service Operations Expert) - Network Access Control at a pharma/biotech company with 10,001+ employees
Nov 13, 2024
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) needs to improve the profiling preauthentication. They are very poor in asset classification and should focus on improving the preauthentication profiling, especially for NAC use cases.
John Ntambi - PeerSpot reviewer
Ag. Systems & Networks Head at UNBS
Jun 25, 2025
The integrations with the switches and the wireless controllers are not really straightforward. There is what they call the best practice for them, but it may not be what we have on-premise.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE). Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: September 2026.
912,930 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Jihad Aqel - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer at Shabkati network solutions
Nov 7, 2024
The licensing scheme is complex and could use enhancement to provide more options.
JN
Technical Services Lead at Telenet Solutions
Feb 28, 2025
I would say they need to expand the hardware compatibility. The whole setup works well with Cisco access points and Cisco switches, but when you have multiple vendors in the environment, such as HP switches or access points like Aruba, you'll find they will not work well with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE).
Brad Lossing - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager Network Operations at RAND Corporation
Jun 15, 2023
They should improve the documentation. There tends to be a lot of old text, or the new things aren't always up to what's been released on the code, and sometimes the documentation is inconsistent.
Adarge Ekholt - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at a university with 1,001-5,000 employees
Aug 3, 2023
The primary issue is the slowness of the application and the web interface. We have multiple admin nodes and app nodes. So when I need to get some information about a particular user, the GUI would take ten to fifteen seconds in loading when we need to know right away.
SL
Network Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Jun 15, 2023
The web UI should be made similar to the one in DNAC.
Solomon Okonta - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at Great Canadian Gaming Corp
Jun 14, 2023
The policies could be adjusted to make them more easily implementable.
Ahmed_Shalaby - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Cyber Security Engineer at Beta Information Technology
Jan 18, 2024
We face many bugs.