


Cisco Secure Access and Idira Secure Cloud Access both compete in the secure access solutions market. Cisco seems to have the upper hand due to its comprehensive features and integration capabilities.
Features: Cisco Secure Access offers VPN-as-a-Service, ZTNA, and AI-driven policy management, greatly benefiting geographically dispersed operations. It integrates with ThousandEyes for enhanced monitoring and uses integrated threat intelligence to bolster security controls. Idira Secure Cloud Access emphasizes identity-based access and session monitoring, excelling in hybrid cloud deployments and on-premises environments with a focus on identity management.
Room for Improvement: Cisco Secure Access needs to address compatibility in mixed vendor setups and simplify its complex pricing. Its AI features require distinctiveness compared to rivals. Idira Secure Cloud Access should streamline its initial setup process and improve integration with enterprise IT systems. It would benefit from reducing initial costs and simplifying complex licensing arrangements.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco Secure Access provides flexible deployment across cloud environments, offering comprehensive technical support, though first-level support can be inconsistent. Idira Secure Cloud Access delivers strength in private and hybrid cloud settings but faces challenges with timely customer support access, with user feedback suggesting a less extensive support framework compared to Cisco.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco Secure Access leverages existing product relationships for competitive pricing, particularly benefiting existing Cisco users with operational efficiencies despite premium pricing. Idira Secure Cloud Access, with its higher initial configuration and complex licensing, is geared towards larger enterprises. Both deliver substantial ROI through security and operational savings, with Cisco notably offering more economic incentives and integration benefits.
With iboss, whenever you turn on your laptop, the iboss agent automatically connects to the iboss cloud, enforcing all security policies. So with respect to the security side, it strengthens measures.
Deploying iboss leads to good return on investment, estimated around 70% to 80%.
I have seen some cost effectiveness from iboss; it has reduced certain support requirements, making it a more hands-off solution.
At Amazon, we knew exactly how much it would cost if a fulfillment center was down for an hour.
The AI features further contribute by expediting threat detection and incident response, ensuring tangible returns through operational savings.
It is one of those tools that needs to work right out of the box, and thankfully, it does; it is reliable, and the setup time was quick and straightforward.
We have reduced approximately 70 to 75 percent of our time when accessing resources through CyberArk Secure Cloud Access.
Additionally, we have money saved in the long run on infrastructure costs.
I have seen a return on investment; from a security point of view, it helps us in terms of time as well as manpower.
They are very fast, responsive, and knowledgeable.
The quality of the support is fantastic.
We had promising discussions about resolving these issues, but no real action followed.
Cisco TAC is very competent.
With our established point of contact within Cisco, our experience has greatly improved; we no longer log all issues through technical cases, as we can go directly to our account managers or customer service team, which expedites resolution.
I would rate the technical support ten out of ten. Hands down.
They adhere to SLAs, and most issues are resolved effectively.
As long as you have a license from them, the support is available during deployment.
They are helpful and provide enterprise-level support with knowledgeable engineers and ample documentation, especially during setup and critical issue handling.
They are also able to meet on-demand requirements based on your contract with them, and can easily provide adequate resources and scalability.
I would rate it a nine out of ten for scalability.
If I start seeing sluggishness or anything like that, I just reach out to my rep, and they connect with their dev team, typically resolving it the same day.
We turn the traffic to the Cisco Secure Access cloud, and we can manage and apply the policies that are necessary, making it very easy to scale the solution.
Cisco has a great benefit in that you can integrate with other solutions in an easy way because it has a lot of protocols to integrate with others and sophisticated steps that we can apply for integration.
Performance has remained consistent, usage has increased, and we have not experienced scalability-related limitations.
If you have a small to medium-sized enterprise, you can typically complete your deployment in roughly a week.
When it comes to performance, I am definitely satisfied with CyberArk Secure Cloud Access on the IT estate.
Ensuring that users can only access servers with the proper multi-factor authentication and manager approval.
It's been pretty solid; I've never had an outage with them, and if I ever had, it's only been once out of the seven years.
We've experienced zero downtime.
Our biggest problem with their service was it did not recognize the device despite our ClearPass sending information to the iboss box.
Cisco is renowned for their reliability, and their products perform well under high data usage.
The service consistently provides secure connectivity for remote users, contractors, and hybrid environments with minimal disruption.
I rate the stability of Cisco Secure Access as ten out of ten.
The platform achieves strong uptime and stability amongst enterprise-level security.
If CyberArk Secure Cloud Access is down, you cannot access anything, which is a double-edged sword.
The stability from a security perspective is quite good.
It is not as intuitive as the rest of the platform.
iboss's single pane of glass console gives centralized visibility into web traffic, user activity, security policies, and alerts from one dashboard.
We also had a problem with a transition when we upgraded from one appliance of theirs to another, but their engineer lost a good deal of our data.
Modernization is needed, specifically in the enhancement of security features and functionality.
It was challenging to learn because it has a significant learning curve and requires considerable training to become proficient.
The granular access issue is coming from the product limitation at the moment, as it does not offer us the option to tell it that a particular role can only manage websites, allowed sites, and blocked sites.
It is important for critical support to respond within fifteen to twenty minutes to minimize business impact.
You need to understand every component because the least mistake results in being completely locked out of the system.
More guided deployment wizards, better automated onboarding templates, improved UI/UX experiences, simplified policy management, and enhanced reporting and troubleshooting would be beneficial.
It offers the same features you would get from a vendor that charges 250,000 British pounds for a fraction of the price.
The following year, the cost of just licensing was similar to what was paid the previous year for a new appliance along with the implementation and licensing costs.
Regarding pricing, setup costs, and licensing, iboss is not cheap, and that's my only concern.
The solution is cheaper than premium options such as Palo Alto, existing Cisco licenses facilitate replacing previous solutions with Cisco Secure Access smoothly and affordably.
It is good because you want to push Cisco Secure Access, and regarding the price, it is very much below other products.
Improvement on the pricing will help in expanding the market for Cisco Secure Access and then it can be affordable to much more number of companies than what it is right now.
I am not directly involved in pricing aspects, but I am aware that CyberArk is considered costly compared to other products.
The setup cost initially will be higher as it needs to be integrated with different applications that the organization has.
The pricing for CyberArk Secure Cloud Access is quite high, especially the initial implementation cost, as it requires skilled engineers for deployment, configuration, and integration with various tools.
The solution's mental health function can detect if someone needs help.
It's given us a lot more visibility into our computer assets that may be infected with viruses and also shows us people who have unusually large uploads or might be engaging in high-risk activities, such as searches or going to sites not categorized by their web crawler.
iboss was the best solution for us because, no matter what domain you were in, everything is under a single pane of glass, which is exactly what we wanted.
It eliminates the hassle of switching on VPNs and provides a direct connection to resources via Cisco Secure Access.
They are sending the traffic encrypted and categorizing the traffic based on the type, whether web traffic or internet traffic, and doing the security mechanism that is needed for the traffic type.
Using ZTNA in Cisco Secure Access has positively affected my transition and my clients' transition to Zero Trust and least privilege principles, reinforcing the security posture.
The solution provides robust security features essential for financial and banking sectors to avoid network and connectivity issues or security breaches.
Dynamic role-based access helps you identify which user is accessing what, with what device, at what time, and the level of access the person has for doing what they are doing.
This new approach is particularly effective for dynamic environments where traditional PAM requires significant effort to detect accounts, onboard accounts, and provide access rights.
| Product | Mindshare (%) |
|---|---|
| Cisco Secure Access | 4.8% |
| iboss | 4.5% |
| Idira Secure Cloud Access | 1.0% |
| Other | 89.7% |


| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 13 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 11 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 28 |
| Midsize Enterprise | 15 |
| Large Enterprise | 41 |
| Company Size | Count |
|---|---|
| Small Business | 7 |
| Large Enterprise | 6 |
iboss is the Zero Trust SASE platform that gives organizations complete visibility and governance over their AI, data, and applications through one unified platform, one console, one policy engine, and one data lake.
Your endpoints may already stop malware. Your data and application activity can still be invisible. iboss decrypts and understands every connection, then turns that signal into answers security leaders can act on.
The platform leads with three capabilities in this order: AI Security and Visibility, Data Security and Visibility, and App Visibility and Control. Zero Trust Network Access, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN sit underneath as the access fabric that carries those three. Trusted by global enterprises and government agencies.
What are the most important features of Iboss?
- AI Security and Visibility: conversation capture, shadow-AI discovery, AI DLP, and agent governance across Claude, Co-Work, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Grok, and emerging services.
- Data Security and Visibility: full SSL/TLS decryption, deep content inspection, MIP label compliance, and one-click compliance reporting.
- App Visibility and Control: signatureless CASB, dual risk scoring, in-app controls, and SSPM for major SaaS.
- Containerized Zero Trust SASE: dedicated containers, isolated SSL keys, one console, one policy engine, one data lake.
- Access fabric: ZTNA, VPN replacement, and SD-WAN under the same platform.
What benefits should users consider in reviews?
- Complete visibility over AI, data, and applications from one platform instead of separate point tools.
- Encrypted traffic is inspected by default so data decisions use content and context together.
- Shadow SaaS and new web tools appear as they are used, with enforceable controls in one console.
- Native data sovereignty through dedicated containers, in-region inspection, and per-customer SSL key custody.
- Scale proven in published materials: 10M+ users, 100+ countries, 150B+ transactions, 2.5B+ threats blocked.
Economic buyers are CISOs, CIOs, and VPs of Security. Champions include security architects, network and infrastructure leaders, SecOps, and GRC. Primary segments: enterprise and business, financial services, government (including FedRAMP Gov Cloud), healthcare, manufacturing, legal and professional services, retail and hospitality, and MSP/MSSP partners. Education, including K-12, is one vertical among these.
Cisco Secure Access is a comprehensive Security Service Edge (SSE) solution (a key component of a SASE solution) that addresses the complexities of securing a hybrid enterprise. Cloud-delivered and grounded in zero trust, it delivers a unique blend of user simplicity and IT efficiency for frictionless, secure access to all applications—SaaS (with gen AI), private apps, and the internet—regardless of user location or device. Secure Access protects users, data, and devices against relentless, sophisticated, and constantly evolving threats including AI-driven attacks and identity breaches.
Provides all core SSE components (ZTNA, SWG, CASB, and FWaaS) plus extended capabilities.
Includes VPN-as-a-Service (VPNaaS), data loss prevention (DLP), AI Assistant, visibility/control/guardrails for generative AI use, digital experience monitoring (DEM), reserved IP, remote browser isolation (RBI), DNS-layer security, flexible security enforcement (in cloud or on-premises), policy verification, and more.
Protects users as they seamlessly access resources and apps with no extra steps needed, regardless of protocol, port, or level of customization
Simplifies IT operations through a single client, single dashboard, single license, and unified policies.
Lowers risk with least privilege, granular controls backed with unmatched threat intelligence of Cisco Talos.
Eases interoperability with other products from Cisco and third-party vendors with common administrative controls, data structures, and policy management.
Robust integrations
Integrates with Cisco Identity Intelligence to protect against the startling increase in identity-based attacks.
Integrates with many SAML Identity Providers (IDPs) such as AD, Azure AD, Okta, Ping, etc.
Integrates with Cisco offerings including SD-WAN, Splunk, XDR, Thousand Eyes, third party technologies such as Menlo RBI, Chrome Enterprise Browser, and AppOmni for SSPM.
CyberArk Secure Cloud Access improves security with its dynamic role-based access and efficient management of private keys, minimizing security risks and enhancing user experience in demanding cloud environments.
CyberArk Secure Cloud Access is designed for lightweight deployment, offering high availability and robust security features. Its seamless integration with SIEM enhances user experience, while private key management reduces manual entry dependency. Comprehensive audit trails and visibility facilitate monitoring and risk reduction in CI/CD environments. Despite its robust capabilities, on-premises deployments can be complex, requiring improvements in customization and real-time monitoring features. Expanding availability across various clouds, especially in compliance-focused regions like India, is necessary to address AI challenges and hybrid multicloud needs.
What are the Key Features of CyberArk Secure Cloud Access?
What Benefits and ROI Can Users Expect?
CyberArk Secure Cloud Access is widely implemented in industries requiring robust privileged access management, governance, and auditing. It provides valuable insights into access details and actions, aiding organizations in managing access within secure environments. With extensive use in identity management across major cloud platforms, it supports tracking changes and permissions, crucial for cybersecurity operations in complex network and cloud infrastructures.
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