We performed a comparison between Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) and Cisco Secure Firewall based on real PeerSpot user reviews.
Find out in this report how the two Cisco Security Portfolio solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI."The most valuable feature is AnyConnect Posture because it scans all the programs on the workstation and checks if the antivirus is up to date, as well as the cryptographic keys on our SSD."
"Our clients like Cisco ISE because they already use various Cisco solutions. It's easy for them to use this solution because they have an engineer with Cisco certifications."
"The solution enables us to authenticate with AD."
"The solution enables us to do everything from one interface."
"I like that Cisco ISE is easy to use."
"I've had no issues with scalability. I started using it on two campuses, and now I'm using it across the country and scaling it across subsidiaries in other countries."
"Cisco ISE's profiling and posturing features ensure that all devices are compliant with regulatory authorities."
"The live logs and live sessions for troubleshooting are the most valuable features because they provide a detailed report of any issues."
"Cisco Secure Firewall made it easier so that more than one person can handle things. We are able to have a bigger team that can handle simple tasks and have a smaller team focus on the deep-dive needs."
"The technical support is excellent. I would rate it as 10 out of 10. When there has been an issue, we have had a good response from them."
"The management aspect of the product is very straightforward."
"With Cisco, there are a lot of features such as the network map. Cisco builds the whole network map of the machines you have behind your firewall and gives you insight into the vulnerabilities and attributes that the host has. Checkpoint and Fortinet don't have that functionality directly on the firewall."
"The VPN is our most widely used feature for Cisco Secure Firewall. Since we were forced into a hybrid working situation by COVID a few years back, VPN is the widely used feature because everybody is working remotely for our agency. So it came in very handy."
"Collaboration with other Cisco products such as ISE and others is the most valuable feature."
"The most valuable feature is zone segmentation, which we utilize through the Firepower management console."
"I work with Cisco and other partners, but the Cisco team is the best team in our country. When I call them, they always help us."
"With the recent release of the solution, we had a bunch of bugs and we had to delay our deployment. Other than that, the solution is good."
"When I work with customers to do my knowledge transfer, they're really overwhelmed with the navigation of the product and the number of things you can do with it. From a user interface standpoint, Cisco could focus on making certain tasks a bit more guided and easier for customers to walk through. That is, a user-friendly interface and streamlined workflows would be great."
"The knocks I have against the product are the number of bugs that we encounter, constantly, and the amount of upgrading that we have to do."
"The tracking mechanism in Cisco ISE is relatively costly, especially its vendor-specific protocol."
"There are always some things that I would request."
"The pricing is fair."
"Some of ISE's features need to be more agile. For example, we couldn't integrate our data because Cisco needs your data to be in its own format."
"Automation [is an area for improvement]. It seems like everywhere I look, automation is super important. Automation and integrations. That's the area it could be improved..."
"It needs to provide the next-generation firewall features that other vendors provide, like data analytics, telemetry, and deep packet inspection."
"We are still running the original ASAs. The software that you are running for the ASDM software and Java application has never been a lot of fun to operate. It would have been nice to see that change update be redesigned with modern systems, which don't play nicely with Java sometimes. Cybersecurity doesn't seem to love how that operates. For us, a fresher application, taking advantage of the hardware, would have been a better approach."
"Cisco Firepower is not completely integrated with Active Directory. We are trying to use Active Directory to restrict users by using some security groups that are not integrated within the Cisco Firepower module. This is the main issue that we are facing."
"With the new FTD, there is a little bit of a learning curve."
"They should work on making it a little more intuitive for users and not quite as complex. Still, it's a good product."
"The management of the firewalls could be improved because there are a lot of bugs."
"Cisco Secure Firewall's integration with cloud providers has room for improvement. We could do more in terms of integration, for example, if we had a tag on an instance."
"Licensing is complex, and I'd like it to be simplified. This is an area for improvement."
More Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) Pricing and Cost Advice →
Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is ranked 1st in Cisco Security Portfolio with 84 reviews while Cisco Secure Firewall is ranked 6th in Cisco Security Portfolio with 111 reviews. Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is rated 8.4, while Cisco Secure Firewall is rated 8.4. The top reviewer of Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) writes "Offers rich contact sharing, many self-service features, and the ability to categorically list all the endpoints in the infrastructure". On the other hand, the top reviewer of Cisco Secure Firewall writes "Includes multiple tools that help manage and troubleshoot, but needs SD-WAN for load balancing". Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is most compared with Aruba ClearPass, Fortinet FortiNAC, Forescout Platform, CyberArk Privileged Access Manager and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM), whereas Cisco Secure Firewall is most compared with Fortinet FortiGate, Meraki MX, Palo Alto Networks WildFire, Netgate pfSense and Sophos XG. See our Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) vs. Cisco Secure Firewall report.
See our list of best Cisco Security Portfolio vendors.
We monitor all Cisco Security Portfolio reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.