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Symantec Siteminder pros and cons

Vendor: Broadcom
4.0 out of 5
Badge Ranked 1

Pros & Cons summary

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Prominent pros & cons

PROS

Symantec Siteminder offers robust scalability, supporting a large customer base and effectively managing bulk traffic.
The federation feature is highly customizable and integrates seamlessly with third-party vendors, enhancing security and reducing onboarding time.
Symantec Siteminder simplifies user access management with features like seamless integration and single sign-on, which improve user experience and efficiency.
Authentication and authorization features enhance security across sites, maintaining user safety through secure directories and integrated Active Directory support.
The solution's simplicity allows for quick deployment and integration within hours, alongside efficient debugging tools for administration.

CONS

Technical support has been lacking, with unresolved issues and slow response times.
The initial setup is complex and challenging, especially for large organizations.
Reporting needs improvement, including centralized reporting and integration into single sign-on.
There are compatibility issues with certain protocols such as OAuth and OpenID.
Adaptive authentication and multi-factor authentication should be integrated features.
 

Symantec Siteminder Pros review quotes

it_user354801 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Nov 16, 2015
It is reliable.
it_user392583 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Aug 24, 2017
It provides the breadth and the width to provide solutions for the different kinds of technologies which we have.
UA
Sr. Manager at Duroob Technology
Oct 15, 2018
The most valuable feature is that it meets the requirements of the customer. You have a lot of features in the product. Every product has them, but the question is, are these products going to meet the requirement of the customer?
Learn what your peers think about Symantec Siteminder. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user440760 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Operations at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sep 21, 2017
IWA is an out-of-the-box feature. The SAML-based federation is standard for all tools. However, CA Single Sign-On has made the federation configuration way too simple and handy to set up and use.
it_user778521 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Minder Admin at a construction company with 501-1,000 employees
Nov 26, 2017
SAML is the best thing we're using right now because there is no need for creating an external account.
it_user778593 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager with 10,001+ employees
Nov 26, 2017
Federation is valuable, for sure, because we have a lot of third-party vendors that we need to integrate with, and this is a turnkey solution in some ways.
it_user778626 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Analyst at NRG Energy
Nov 26, 2017
Authentication & Authorization are important because all the sites need authentication for security purposes. That has been handled pretty well all these years with SSO.
Software4a0d - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineering Consultant at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Nov 26, 2017
As our identity model continues to mature, probably the Federation is most valueable.
it_user778665 - PeerSpot reviewer
Design Engineer 5 at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Nov 26, 2017
Right now, federation that comes out-of-the-box with single sign-on is the most valuable feature that we have, and also scalability.
SA
IT Security Consultant at Duroob Technology
Nov 26, 2017
It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days.
 

Symantec Siteminder Cons review quotes

it_user354801 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Nov 16, 2015
The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect.
it_user392583 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Manager at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Aug 24, 2017
As we are moving in to the mobility space, this is where we really see SiteMinder and their other product really come together to provide a solution base to a different area where the IoT is coming, the different business communications are happening. All of those things require authentication and we really want to see this product grow into that role.
UA
Sr. Manager at Duroob Technology
Oct 15, 2018
CA has reporting at the moment. With the reporting, every particular segmented product has a reporting engine. I would like to see centralized reporting for all of them together.
Learn what your peers think about Symantec Siteminder. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: December 2025.
880,511 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user440760 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager, Operations at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Sep 21, 2017
If the reporting feature can be integrated into SSO itself that will be an icing on the cake.
it_user778521 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Minder Admin at a construction company with 501-1,000 employees
Nov 26, 2017
We are finding some compatibility issues. We're still working with CA on them.
it_user778593 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager with 10,001+ employees
Nov 26, 2017
I think they need to integrate some of the newer types of authentication into the product. I'm not seeing the innovation when it comes to biometrics in the product.
it_user778626 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Analyst at NRG Energy
Nov 26, 2017
We would like to the OAuth be more stable, more issues being fixed rather than not.
Software4a0d - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineering Consultant at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Nov 26, 2017
I'd like to see a rework of the user directory configuration.
it_user778665 - PeerSpot reviewer
Design Engineer 5 at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Nov 26, 2017
Better documentation. I went through some sessions on single sign-on for version 12.7.
SA
IT Security Consultant at Duroob Technology
Nov 26, 2017
The Federation part of CA Single Sign On, it's a bit complex to implement because it involves the SSL certificates, exchange of certificates, and lot of technical details. The documentation misses some important parts of this, so that's the reason it took some time for us to go live.