

Cisco Duo and Cisco ISE are both security-focused products from Cisco. Cisco Duo appears to have the upper hand in user satisfaction due to its ease of use and cost-effectiveness, whereas Cisco ISE is preferred for its advanced security features.
Features: Users value Cisco Duo for its multi-factor authentication, seamless integration, and simplicity. Cisco ISE is noted for its robust network access control, extensive visibility, and comprehensive compliance reporting capabilities.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Duo needs better reporting capabilities, a simpler administrative interface, and enhanced usability. Cisco ISE could improve with a more intuitive configuration process, faster customer support response times, and less setup complexity.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Duo is known for a quick and smooth deployment process with excellent customer service. Cisco ISE's deployment is more complex and time-consuming, with mixed reviews on customer service effectiveness and responsiveness.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Duo is considered cost-effective with low setup costs and satisfactory ROI. Cisco ISE involves higher setup costs but offers strong ROI due to its extensive feature set and capabilities.
I think Cisco Duo offers a good return on investment for startups, newer organizations, or those utilizing cloud-based applications.
I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system.
From my point of view, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Duo is the security and the ease of setting it up.
Direct comparisons with Forescout reveal up to 30% to 40% difference in cost savings.
We also save money because we increased security, stopped incidents, and reduced breaches and security breaches.
They got back to us quickly, were nice, and gave us what we needed.
I would rate their support 10 out of 10.
I would rate support for Cisco Duo a 10, as I have never had a negative experience.
I rate the technical support as one out of ten.
Cisco support has pretty good teams for support and every time we had good answers and we could somehow solve the issues we had.
TAC support from Cisco is a notable feature; it provides very professional support.
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.
I believe Cisco Duo is very scalable because it is cloud-based.
We started out with just the basics, getting a token, and then we changed to push, and now, we have added the offline mode.
You can run an all-in-one deployment and switch to distributed mode as your company grows, relying on Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) to support your scalability needs.
Factors like architecture, business nature, and legal limitations such as GDPR affect it.
However, you can have some latency issues depending on where your devices are.
We have not had any Cisco Duo outages across all the companies I have worked for that utilize Cisco Duo.
When there is a bigger problem, we get notifications from Cisco Duo saying, 'Hey, we have a problem,' and that has helped us.
We have never experienced any downtime.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is considered very reliable and stable.
The stability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is poor for certain use cases, like authentication.
Sometimes when we have upgrades or failovers with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), we had some minor issues.
If you don't have internet access, you can't access your computer, only local access is available.
Cisco should allow easier integration with third-party equipment because Cisco's own equipment is expensive.
There needs to be consideration for how to launch Cisco Duo with a handheld device that is not native, where you can install the application.
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).
Pricing can be more expensive compared to other vendors, and there is a significant price gap observed, which doesn't seem justified by some specific features.
They are very poor in asset classification and should focus on improving the preauthentication profiling, especially for NAC use cases.
The pricing is acceptable to them.
Their website lists $3 per month per user for the Essential license.
One of my customers recently received a billing statement charging 3,600 US dollars for 100 users for one year.
Compared to other solutions like HPE ClearPass, Cisco is more costly, and the conversation suggests a possible forty percent price gap compared to competitors.
The license costs can range between $50,000 to $100,000 per year for enterprises.
Cloud solutions are expensive, while on-prem setups with shared environments are cheaper but not effective.
From a management perspective, I appreciate that we can enroll or control devices on the back end for people who get a new phone and forget to handle Cisco Duo properly and need to add a new device.
Our company benefits from all those features of Cisco Duo with confidence, and we feel very secure with it in terms of authentication of our logins.
The benefit of having a complete passwordless environment in our organization is that it's gotten people away from using the sticky note under their keyboard - which is a huge problem.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) offers authentication using RADIUS, enhancing network security by separating and segregating networks.
There is value because it helps us secure the network and prevents certain things from happening which could cause financial loss.
The adaptability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) policy enforcement can fit to the site we have depending on which kind of devices we have on site and then the needs for authentication, granting access and then assigning each device into its correct network for segmentation.
| Product | Market Share (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) | 22.8% |
| Cisco Duo | 8.3% |
| Other | 68.9% |

| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 31 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 18 |
| Large Enterprise | 38 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 44 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 32 |
| Large Enterprise | 91 |
Cisco Duo is a cloud-based identity security platform safeguarding critical resources for any user and device worldwide. Known for its ease of use, Duo offers seamless protection across multi-cloud, hybrid, and on-premises environments.
Cisco Duo is designed to secure access with identity-first protection and provides extensive visibility throughout an organization's identity ecosystem. Offering multi-factor authentication, Duo facilitates easy integration and management, allowing teams to protect data effectively on VPNs, applications, and networks. Its single-pane management improves security processes while enhancing trust, making it suitable for diverse IT infrastructures.
What are the key features of Cisco Duo?In industries like education and finance, Cisco Duo is widely employed to secure multi-factor authentication across platforms such as email, databases, and servers. Its integration capabilities with Microsoft 365, Active Directory, and VPNs like AnyConnect are instrumental in verifying user identities using mobile apps or OTPs, catering effectively to both remote and on-premise environments.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) offers comprehensive network access control and visibility, supporting features like 802.1X authentication, profiling, and posturing. It integrates with Microsoft and other Cisco products, facilitating robust security policies across distributed networks.
Cisco Identity Services Engine is a key player in network access control, offering centralized management and a user-friendly interface. It supports zero trust principles and provides strong authentication for wired and wireless networks. ISE's capabilities include granular security policies, enhanced device posturing, and seamless integration, bolstering security infrastructure. Users benefit from its dual authentication through EAP, simplifying access management across networks.
What are the key features of Cisco ISE?In industries like finance, healthcare, and education, Cisco ISE is pivotal for securing wired and wireless networks, implementing BYOD policies, and managing user access. Organizations leverage ISE for effective authentication and authorization, while maintaining compliance with industry security standards.
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