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ARCON Privileged Access Management vs Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

ARCON Privileged Access Man...
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
36
Ranking in other categories
Privileged Access Management (PAM) (8th)
Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
145
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (2nd), Cisco Security Portfolio (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

ARCON Privileged Access Management and Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. ARCON Privileged Access Management is designed for Privileged Access Management (PAM) and holds a mindshare of 3.0%, down 3.7% compared to last year.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), on the other hand, focuses on Network Access Control (NAC), holds 22.4% mindshare, down 28.3% since last year.
Privileged Access Management (PAM) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
ARCON Privileged Access Management3.0%
CyberArk Privileged Access Manager11.6%
WALLIX Bastion5.1%
Other80.3%
Privileged Access Management (PAM)
Network Access Control (NAC) Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)22.4%
Aruba ClearPass21.6%
Fortinet FortiNAC16.1%
Other39.9%
Network Access Control (NAC)
 

Featured Reviews

DS
System and DBA at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Enhanced security through session monitoring and activity recording
From an end-user point of view, it would be beneficial if the system could provide information about the last login. This would help identify if the server was accessed by me or if someone has potentially stolen my credentials. It would provide a clearer picture of whether ARCON Privileged Access Management is accessed by an authentic user.
NF
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It gives us a lot of comfort in terms of security level. Our infrastructure devices and servers are secured and nobody can have unauthorized access to them."
"The technical support is excellent."
"The initial setup is very straightforward. It's not complex at all."
"Technical support is good. I rate the technical support an eight out of ten."
"The most valuable feature is it is easy to use and the interface is intuitive."
"For compliance, each change I do, in each of the servers, is clearly recorded. We recently faced an audit and this was an awesome feature. Even our auditor had praise for it saying, "This is really a good feature.""
"The notification alert feature where the network admin gets notified of probable malicious activity is the most valuable feature."
"Overall, I would rate ARCON Privileged Access Management nine out of ten."
"One of the advantages is that you can easily find rogue endpoints. For example, if you don't want to allow any endpoints where you don't know the people plugging into what kind of devices, ISE can give you a big, clear picture, e.g., what kind of endpoints are getting connected to your network. That is one of the advantages."
"At the moment, ISE seems to integrate very well with a number of other technologies."
"TACACS and .1X security are the most valuable features. TACACS acts for user control, so no one can authenticate to our network devices, and .1X is to validate that unauthorized devices are plugged into our network."
"The policies allow us to enforce certain rules on the network to be able to screen our users more effectively."
"The profiling model included is the most valuable feature."
"The WiFi portal in Cisco ISE is very useful for WiFi customers."
"I have noticed measurable improvements in security and efficiency since implementing Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), as we have increased security significantly compared to before and everything has changed in security after we implemented it."
"The solution cuts down on the repercussions of getting malware or ransomware."
 

Cons

"If an ID gets locked, the tool cannot unlock it, making it an area where improvements are required."
"A few areas for improvement in ARCON would be performance optimization, ensuring smoother management."
"I would like for it to be dependent on Windows as opposed to Linux."
"There are some features lacking but they typically are added when the upgrades are released."
"They they should focus on support. The support needs to be very strong. Since the product is becoming stronger, their support team also should be equally strong. They should respond to open queries within the time limit they have set. Their support team should be more technical, to understand the issue or the set up."
"We would like to see support for privileged accounts used in web-based systems like Blue Coat Secure Web Gateway, VMware ESXI management tools, etc."
"Initially, there were some issues with .NET applications in Windows 10 systems."
"For the in-house built applications, they need to provide good, solid access through their portal."
"The web UI should be made similar to the one in DNAC."
"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."
"The solution lacks properly knowledgeable support, especially internationally, and this is why I am exploring other applications."
"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."
"I would like for the next release to be easier to implement and to limit its dependencies around ISE, Windows, the network as a whole, etc."
"An area that could be improved is the agent. The challenge now is that agent and most of the computers have changed. They could think about agent-less deployment."
"There can be a little bit more integration between the controller management and ISE. There are two dashboards, you have the controller dashboards, and you have the ISE dashboard it would is a way to maybe integrate that into one. That would be great. It's not that bad. It would be easier if it could be combined into one dashboard."
"One of the issues that we used to have was with profiling because we're working with a service provider that uses a lot of bring your own devices."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product is available with competitive pricing. Licensing is not complex. We calculated the license requirements by counting the number of admins and the number of devices which were going to integrate with it."
"Pricing and licensing are good, very aggressive."
"ARCON is a will give you all the features in a very cost-effective solution. Pricing and licensing is very good compared to other players in the market."
"The product's pricing is good value. Go for user-based licensing, without any limit on the target servers."
"ARCON Privileged Access Management's pricing is reasonable."
"I definitely feel the product's pricing is a good value. It is one of the best products we have. The licensing is server-based."
"Pricing is low and licensing is flexible."
"It is good value for our business. According to me, their competitors are more costly. Therefore, it is quite affordable. I find the ARCON to be much cheaper than the other products in the market."
"The price of Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is expensive and we are thinking about changing to FortiGate."
"It would be beneficial to have a single license that included all of the features."
"Cisco is moving towards a subscription service, which would mean additional costs."
"Standard licensing gives backup access and very few features, and then there's VM licensing - each VM we use needs to be licensed."
"Cybersecurity resilience has been very important to our organization and has been a big factor. We've had issues in the past, but one of the things I like about ISE is its logging features. Security wise or information wise, it really has been a powerful tool."
"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."
"If you're not going through an agreement, it's very expensive."
"The technology is good, but to use some of the other features, and capabilities, they request that we purchase the Cisco DNA Center. As a result, the bundled price is a little high."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
12%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business9
Midsize Enterprise11
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business44
Midsize Enterprise32
Large Enterprise91
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with ARCON Privileged Access Management?
From an end-user point of view, it would be beneficial if the system could provide information about the last login. This would help identify if the server was accessed by me or if someone has pote...
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 ...
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, ...
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...
 

Also Known As

ARCON ARCOS, ARCON PAM
Cisco ISE
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

RAK Bank, AXIS Bank, Reliance Capital, Kotak Life Insurance, MTS
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
Find out what your peers are saying about CyberArk, One Identity, Delinea and others in Privileged Access Management (PAM). Updated: December 2025.
879,422 professionals have used our research since 2012.