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Cisco Secure Access pros and cons

Vendor: Cisco
4.3 out of 5
Badge Leader

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Cisco Secure Access significantly improves ROI through reduced response times and resource efficiency.
It offers robust security, effectively protecting organizations from threats like phishing and ransomware.
The integration with identity-based security measures aligns with the Zero Trust architecture, providing enhanced security management.
Cisco Secure Access increases operational efficiency with cloud-based administration and automation.
Cisco Secure Access delivers a strong return on investment by reducing security risks and improving operational efficiency.

CONS

Cisco Secure Access has confusing and expensive licensing, with unclear support offerings, requiring guidance from representatives.
Technical support has declined, making it difficult to raise a support ticket and receive timely assistance.
The pricing is high, posing affordability challenges for mid-size and smaller businesses compared to competitors.
Integrating multiple Cisco components like AnyConnect, ISE, and Duo increases complexity, unlike all-in-one solutions from other vendors.
Users face challenges with stability, reliability, and performance, especially with feature usage and bug issues.
 

Cisco Secure Access Pros review quotes

reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Dec 16, 2025
From my experience, Cisco Secure Access is very stable and has not crashed.
Vishnu Narahari - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Jul 16, 2026
Overall, Cisco Secure Access has been a valuable component of our security strategy.
JA
Head Of IT at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Feb 11, 2026
It has not only been a better solution overall, but also been cost saving, which is unusual—too good to be true at one point, but it has delivered.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Access. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
907,816 professionals have used our research since 2012.
GANESAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Jul 23, 2026
If you have every solution with Cisco, you can see a very good ROI because you do not need to invest much on staffing for analyzing each and every console separately.
Nassif  Kaleny - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Bavaria Egypt S.A.E.
Jun 12, 2026
The return on investment in Cisco Secure Access is significant, providing substantial savings in time, data loss prevention, and management of protection, with time savings reaching up to 30% based on the processing time and retention policy of Cisco Secure Access, which is more than 30% better than others.
Abebe Gebrekirstos - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Design Specialist at TELUS Communications Inc.
Jun 2, 2026
I can provide more advanced security features for my customers because Cisco Secure Access is built in the cloud, I don't have to worry about managing the security enforcement or the behind-the-scenes operational aspect, and it has resiliency in multiple data centers so I get increased availability with multiple redundant tunnels across different data centers.
Brandon McPherson - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Service Delivery Engineer at Colossal, LLC
Mar 23, 2026
Cisco Secure Access has definitely helped our organization, cutting incident response time at least in half and giving us analytics that let us quickly identify devices and users so everything from headquarters contacting the base to the on-site tech removing a rogue device from the classroom network is much quicker.
AK sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Ott Platform at Synamedia
Jul 28, 2026
Cisco Secure Access is a super tool to work with.
William Zachary - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jun 1, 2026
The move from Umbrella to Cisco Secure Access has been great, as Cisco Secure Access has more features available and provides a nice and easy migration from Umbrella to Cisco Secure Access.
AT
Cyber Security Manager at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Feb 11, 2026
The biggest return on investment from Cisco Secure Access, from my perspective, is the end usability from a client perspective.
 

Cisco Secure Access Cons review quotes

reviewer2788500 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Operations Engineer at a media company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Dec 16, 2025
However, the cost of Cisco's products and licensing is high, and mid-size or smaller businesses typically cannot afford Cisco Secure Access.
Vishnu Narahari - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Jul 16, 2026
The initial deployment and policy design process can be complex, particularly for organizations with a large number of applications, diverse user groups, and existing security integrations.
JA
Head Of IT at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Feb 11, 2026
Cisco Secure Access is stable and reliable if certain features are not used. Initially, SSL decryption was enabled, where certificates are decrypted, and when that was turned on, the performance was very unpredictable, plummeting significantly.
Learn what your peers think about Cisco Secure Access. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: August 2026.
907,816 professionals have used our research since 2012.
GANESAN K - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Technical Engineer at Safezone Secure Solutions Private Limited
Jul 23, 2026
There is one particular disadvantage of Cisco Secure Access, and the main thing is pricing.
Nassif  Kaleny - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Bavaria Egypt S.A.E.
Jun 12, 2026
In terms of negative aspects of Cisco Secure Access, it is not easy to manage everything in Cisco products.
Abebe Gebrekirstos - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Design Specialist at TELUS Communications Inc.
Jun 2, 2026
The licensing is a bit expensive for some features of Cisco Secure Access compared to other competitors.
Brandon McPherson - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Service Delivery Engineer at Colossal, LLC
Mar 23, 2026
We did run into an issue with URL filtering where it would not filter a site properly. It took months to resolve by Cisco, but that is the only hiccup I would say there has been.
AK sharma - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Ott Platform at Synamedia
Jul 28, 2026
There are times when Cisco Secure Access feels slow; it takes multiple attempts to log in, which can definitely improve.
William Zachary - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Administrator at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Jun 1, 2026
Most of the Cisco AI offerings are relatively new and do not have all the bells and whistles.
AT
Cyber Security Manager at a non-profit with 501-1,000 employees
Feb 11, 2026
To improve Cisco Secure Access, I believe there should be better clarity from Cisco regarding where organizations should focus their investments.