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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs Oracle Identity Governance 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.4
Cisco Identity Services Engine enhances security and efficiency, providing cost savings and IT consolidation, making it vital for network management.
Sentiment score
5.6
Organizations report mixed ROI from Oracle Identity Governance, noting benefits in automation and flexibility, but concerns about expenses and financial returns.
Direct comparisons with Forescout reveal up to 30% to 40% difference in cost savings.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
5.9
Cisco Identity Services Engine customer service is praised for commitment, but technical support feedback varies due to delays and complexities.
Sentiment score
5.3
Oracle Identity Governance support receives mixed reviews, with users often relying on community resources due to variable service quality.
I rate the technical support as one out of ten.
Sometimes it's challenging to identify which support team is responsible for certain issues, which is a significant concern.
The team is not very knowledgeable and takes too long to respond.
While they are familiar with me, the team is not large enough, which impacts their availability.
I am happy with the technical support from Oracle, it is very good support.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Cisco ISE excels in scalable environments, efficiently supporting deployments with flexibility for thousands of endpoints across various sizes.
Sentiment score
7.0
Oracle Identity Governance excels in scalability with proper configuration, though some users face challenges as load increases.
Factors like architecture, business nature, and legal limitations such as GDPR affect it.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.7
Cisco ISE is reliable with high user satisfaction, though some report stability issues, especially during upgrades and high capacity.
Sentiment score
6.2
Oracle Identity Governance stability varies with configuration and expertise, facing challenges like memory leaks and high-demand instability.
The stability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is poor for certain use cases, like authentication.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is considered very reliable and stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Cisco ISE struggles with setup complexity, non-intuitive UI, integration challenges, upgrade issues, and demands for better features.
Oracle Identity Governance needs enhanced flexibility, integration, cloud support, and user experience, addressing complexity, costs, and stability concerns.
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.
Additionally, the product is vulnerable and has many bugs.
Incorporating AI to reduce manual work would be beneficial.
The scope of the identity management or Oracle IDM is vast, and while we've implemented about 30, 40, or 50% of its capabilities, it's not done at full scale.
Improvements could include making Oracle Identity Governance a simpler plug-and-play product.
 

Setup Cost

Cisco ISE offers strong features with complex, expensive pricing, but discounts through partnerships can help alleviate costs.
Oracle Identity Governance is costly for small businesses with complex licensing, lengthy implementation, and modular options based on needs.
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.
The cost is about 100 million Ugandan shillings, which converts to approximately $30,000 per year.
If you want to implement it at full scale, it's not an entry-level product; it's an enterprise-class product and it is expensive.
They sell the solution cheaply, but setting up and maintaining it becomes very expensive.
Oracle Identity Governance is very expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Cisco ISE provides comprehensive access control, seamless integration, and enhanced security with intuitive management for versatile network operations.
Oracle Identity Governance automates identity management, enhances security, and optimizes compliance with seamless integration and robust customization features.
There is value because it helps us secure the network and prevents certain things from happening which could cause financial loss.
This solution ensures organizations have secure environments and also supports robust policy enforcement, allowing control over who has access to various parts of the network.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is very good at device administration.
The solution's capabilities in provisioning, de-provisioning, terminations, and transfers are excellent.
The best features in Oracle Identity Governance product include comprehensive reporting, as we can track exactly what person did what because of the auditing policies that can be enforced in it, and at what time what was done.
The features I find most effective in Oracle Identity Governance include size and scale management, which is good for large organizations.
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
143
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)
Oracle Identity Governance
Average Rating
7.4
Reviews Sentiment
5.7
Number of Reviews
70
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (8th), Identity Management (IM) (17th), Mobile Identity (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Oracle Identity Governance aren’t in the same category and serve different purposes. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is designed for Network Access Control (NAC) and holds a mindshare of 25.3%, down 31.1% compared to last year.
Oracle Identity Governance, on the other hand, focuses on Identity Management (IM), holds 2.2% mindshare, down 2.9% since last year.
Network Access Control (NAC)
Identity Management (IM)
 

Featured Reviews

SunilkumarNaganuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced device administration hindered by complex deployment and security limitations
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. This will give them a roadmap for software-defined access (SDA) use cases and network segmentation. Threat detection capabilities are very weak. Additionally, the product is vulnerable and has many bugs.
Amimesh Anand - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers reliability through features associated with RBAC
Upgrading and making changes to the product is very difficult. It is difficult when you are upgrading the product because sometimes you cannot directly upgrade from one version to another version. You have to go to the lower version and then upgrade to the higher version, which is the biggest drawback of Oracle products. There are no additional features in the tool currently, and it has been the same for the last ten years. I want to see AI features in the tool so it becomes easy for implementers. There should be a change in the installation and deployment part, which is very heavy, due to which the team requires a lot of time, like two to three weeks. It should be easy to implement the tool in two or three days.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
15%
Educational Organization
15%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Educational Organization
55%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Healthcare Company
2%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Oracle Identity Governance?
Role-based access control (RBAC) has been crucial for role-based management in my current company. Granular access restrictions based on role-based policies were beneficial.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Oracle Identity Governance?
Oracle Identity Governance is very expensive. Licensing is complex as database product licensing differs from other products, and connectors require separate licensing. There's a need for a combine...
What needs improvement with Oracle Identity Governance?
Oracle Identity Governance ( /categories/identity-management-im ) is complex and heavy from an implementation perspective. The configuration installations require going to the server and making man...
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
Oracle Identity Manager, Oracle IAM, Oracle Identity and Access Management Suite
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

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
Werkbank, Oshkosh, PeerPay, Boingo, Kellogg's, Pella, Slanska, Avaya, D+M
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: June 2025.
859,579 professionals have used our research since 2012.