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Thatchapon Wongsri - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer Specialist at Zenith Comp Co.,Ltd.
Reseller
Top 5
Oct 22, 2025
Has strengthened remote access by enforcing secure multifactor login across various applications
Pros and Cons
  • "The biggest benefit of Cisco Duo for my customers is the license because they count licenses for the user—one user can use many applications integrated with Cisco Duo."
  • "Cisco Duo is stable, but occasionally there are emails about incidents that affect some services temporarily."

What is our primary use case?

I implemented Cisco Duo for my customer approximately one year ago. For the use case, we are using Cisco Duo with VPN connection. When the customer VPNs to their environment, before they can access the VPN, they need to do the MFA of Cisco Duo.

What is most valuable?

I find the MFA, multifactor authentication, and Universal Prompt most useful in Cisco Duo. This is a SAML connection. The trusted endpoint and Windows Logon, MFA with Windows Logon, and RDP connection are valuable features. Cisco Duo can be integrated with many third-party vendors and third-party applications.

The main reason my customers started using Cisco Duo is because they need to have a multifactor authentication application to secure their application.

The biggest benefit of Cisco Duo for my customers is the license because they count licenses for the user. One user can use any application. If we buy a 100 or 200 user license, one user can use many applications integrated with Cisco Duo.

Passwordless is a good feature for customers to use Cisco Duo without prompting for the password. They can type the email address, and they can access their application continually and faster than before.

The return on investment my customers see with Cisco Duo includes having the inventory of their mobile and computer. They have Cisco Duo to do the inventory for them, and the MFA helps protect their application.

What needs improvement?

There are no major issues to improve in Cisco Duo because it improves continuously. Cisco Duo has many features separated by license tiers: Essential, Advantage, and Premium. They could consider moving some features from the next license tier to the Essential license tier, such as the health check of endpoint feature.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working in my field for about six years.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Duo is stable, but occasionally there are emails about incidents that affect some services temporarily. The downtime and issues typically occur during maintenance windows at night. When incidents occur, they are not critical issues and do not affect users' ability to use the system.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cisco Duo scales easily with the growing needs of the organization. It integrates with their Active Directory, so when they have a new employee, Cisco Duo will automatically synchronize the user. The customer simply needs to buy more licenses to expand to 1,000 or 2,000 users.

How are customer service and support?

The support for Cisco Duo is excellent. I have opened one case, and they provide good support. I would rate their support 10 out of 10.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The price for Cisco Duo is reasonable. Their website lists $3 per month per user for the Essential license. For company or enterprise usage, the cost decreases below the website price.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

They tested Cisco Duo with SafeNet for comparison.

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Cisco Duo 10 out of 10. Using Cisco Duo's strong security authentication system is straightforward to configure and use.

Advanced Identity is in the next license tier. I am testing it in my company environment but not using it with any customers.

I am currently testing Cisco Identity Intelligence capability to detect and respond to identity-based risks.

Deploying Cisco Duo is not challenging. For the administrator, the deployment takes approximately one to two days. For customer employees to install the Duo desktop application on their computers, the time varies depending on the number of users. For 500 users, it takes approximately one month.

I recommend Cisco Duo because the MFA can integrate with many applications. When customers purchase it, they can integrate it with many of their applications, making it valuable.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. Reseller
Last updated: Oct 22, 2025
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Information Systems Security Analyst at a real estate/law firm with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 20
Jun 2, 2026
Strong authentication has protected remote access and now secures everyday user logins
Pros and Cons
  • "Looking back, the biggest impact Cisco Duo has had on our company is enhancing our security posture."
  • "I think Cisco Duo could improve the dashboard to make logging in and credential management more visible."

What is our primary use case?

Our main use case for Cisco Duo is the VPN, but we are actually moving into using it for the clients and all the endpoints, so they can log in with their device. Primarily, we are using it for the VPN right now.

Cisco Duo offers broader capabilities beyond just MFA. While we utilize it primarily for multi-factor authentication, there are many more features available. Being in security allows me to see how it helps monitor login activity and identify issues more effectively.

What is most valuable?

The feature that I like the most about Cisco Duo is the multi-factor authentication, which we are currently configuring with all the phones, not the Cisco phones, but the Android cellphones.

The multi-factor authentication feature is valuable because many people are actually signing in without knowing who is signing in, or they are not worrying about the security side of the device. They need to be well aware of logging into their device as a second authentication, and it is another authorization for them to make sure that they are logging in as themselves.

The biggest impact if Cisco Duo were gone from our company would be the security side of the whole company, as Cisco Duo provides essential security for all those people to log in. This would significantly impact how we secure our devices with their credentials.

My ability to detect and respond to identity-based risks, such as compromised credentials or suspicious login activity, has changed significantly since implementing Cisco Duo. We can see everything, including people logging in and utilize geolocation to block specific locations, which helps us track unauthorized attempts to log in.

Cisco Duo has definitely helped reduce costs and improve efficiency at our company, especially in security operations. I see a significant impact in traffic monitoring as we previously faced ransomware attacks. Now with Cisco Duo, we can block unauthorized access, making it a really good product for us.

The biggest return on investment from using Cisco Duo is primarily for security. The investment enhances our overall security posture across the company, especially since we handle sensitive information on the Indian reservation. Cisco Duo represents a critical investment for our security needs.

What needs improvement?

I think Cisco Duo could improve the dashboard to make logging in and credential management more visible. I have noticed that when you are offline, you can log in straight without using Cisco Duo, while online it requires Duo, which some users may exploit, allowing for logins without an internet connection.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working in my area of expertise overall for about twelve years, with ten years on the network side and two years in cybersecurity.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability and reliability of Cisco Duo as a product are very good. I really like it and consider it among my favorites. I actively advocate for its use across our company for all end-users on their devices, not just for VPN access.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Cisco Duo's scaling abilities feel adequate. When we needed to expand the number of users, it was not complicated or hard for us at all.

How are customer service and support?

I have not had much experience with Cisco Duo's customer service and technical support, though I did encounter challenges when I lost my phone. I managed to resolve my issues by following steps on Cisco's site, but I think I would be fine reaching out if needed.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Cisco Duo is indeed the first solution of its kind at our company.

How was the initial setup?

The deployment experience of Cisco Duo is straightforward. It is pretty easy, especially when considering the end-users.

The deployment of Cisco Duo is indeed straightforward. The only complication arises when a user loses their phone, which requires extra effort to recover configurations. However, I recognize there are backup features that could help, but I have not explored those yet.

What was our ROI?

The biggest return on investment from using Cisco Duo is primarily for security. The investment enhances our overall security posture across the company, especially since we handle sensitive information on the Indian reservation. Cisco Duo represents a critical investment for our security needs.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

My experience with Cisco Duo's pricing, setup cost, and licensing is limited as I am not involved in that side. I believe we have around three thousand users and think it is affordable, especially if it is a good product.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I choose Cisco Security because it offers a variety of features that I find beneficial. We use many Cisco products for security, such as ICE, Secure Endpoint, and firewalls, which help us monitor and secure against outsiders and unsecure impacts from applications.

What other advice do I have?

We have been using Cisco Duo for about three years now, but it is longer than that before we kind of implement everything and make it work for everybody. It is still a work in progress for us right now.

Looking back, the biggest impact Cisco Duo has had on our company is enhancing our security posture. While there were initial concerns about the additional login steps, the importance of Cisco Duo for security is now more evident, particularly as we utilize it mainly for VPN access right now, while gradually moving towards supporting any end-user devices within our community.

When we first evaluated Cisco Duo, we were primarily looking for a multi-factor authentication solution, but we are also exploring other features that Cisco Duo can offer within the company. I think it is a good product, though we are not using it to its full value yet.

Regarding our company's adoption of AI agents, we are not really implementing much on the AI side yet. I know we are working on ensuring that the AI features are secure, but I do not think we have touched much on Cisco Duo within the AI context, which is something we can look into.

For phishing attacks, we have our email filter, which is not directly related to Cisco Duo, but that is the route we have right now. With Duo, it is just for them to log in, while we focus on more of the email filter for phishing attacks.

I have been mainly concerned about email phishing or credential-based attacks, as many people are not really aware or computer literate enough to know which emails will affect them or which emails are useful. They tend to click whatever they want, which then leads to issues. With Cisco Duo, the impact is knowing that it is them logging in instead of somebody else.

Overall, I think Cisco Duo is a good product, and I hope that everyone looks into improving security measures, whether for companies or personal use. I would rate this review ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Jun 2, 2026
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Roger Gough - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at West Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation, Inc.
Real User
Top 5
Jun 11, 2025
Enhances security through online and offline authentication
Pros and Cons
  • "You can do online and offline authentication."
  • "The feature that my organization started using more recently in Cisco Duo is offline authentication."
  • "Cisco Duo can be improved by exploring a way to make it a more seamless integration and by deploying an in-house server."
  • "I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system. You have to authenticate and do your regular login and your Active Directory logins."

What is our primary use case?

My main use case for Cisco Duo is MFA.

What is most valuable?

You can do online and offline authentication. It benefits my organization by adding an additional layer of security and keeping us more secure, whether the person is corporately connected or out in the field.

The feature that my organization started using more recently in Cisco Duo is offline authentication. It has given us the evolution into offline abilities for when they are out in the field or traveling, and they are not connecting to a known network. 

What needs improvement?

Cisco Duo can be improved by exploring a way to make it a more seamless integration and by deploying an in-house server. 

There has to be a way to make the whole process of push notifications easier, so that when I have my phone with me, I do not have to do anything. It pushes it to my phone and says, 'Yep, that's Roger,' and sends a reply back. Getting in should be totally seamless.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Duo for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Cisco Duo has been very stable. When there is a bigger problem, we get notifications from Cisco Duo saying, 'Hey, we have a problem,' and that has helped us.

A couple of times, we have had some downtime, but it has not been anything that has interfered with daily productivity. We have had a random crash here or there. With the restart of the system, it goes away. It is not something for which we have been able to identify the reason.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have not grown in size with Cisco Duo. We have added additional features over time, and it has grown with us rather well. We started out with just the basics, getting a token, and then we changed to push, and now, we have added the offline mode. We have integrated Cisco Duo into other websites, so now it pushes notifications from our websites into our mobile devices, so we get push notifications from it.

How are customer service and support?

Cisco support is not good to start with. Everything stays the same; the Duo support has been timely in responding to emails, but other support sections have failed miserably because of the lack of response time, the lack of the ability to answer questions, and the lack of tracking down an expert who can help. I can continue for hours over what they have done wrong on that.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Neutral

How was the initial setup?

The setup was not the most complicated thing that I have had to deal with. It has been a little bit easier to set up than some of the other things.

Getting the files to set up virtual servers for it was a little more time-consuming. That was probably the hardest part of the whole thing.

What was our ROI?

I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system. You have to authenticate and do your regular login and your Active Directory logins. When you add that up, five minutes a day, five times a day, five days a week, you have lost two or three hours of productivity just logging in.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The cost was reasonable. Licensing was pretty straightforward for a change.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We looked at other solutions, but because we already had Cisco solutions in-house, we talked to Cisco Duo people two years ago at Cisco Live, and then we made the decision to move to Cisco Duo after that. There's always room for improvement in everything, but the integration that they have works very well with everything that we have.

What other advice do I have?

Our experience with Duo's strong security authentication system when logging in has been moderate. It is a people problem because you have to get people educated and up to speed on how to do things and how to set up their tokens and get everything situated. Once it is all said and done, it is not complicated, but you have got to get people educated on how to make this stuff work.

My advice to other organizations considering Cisco Duo is to make sure of the products you want to support and how they integrate the MFA functions before you consider it. Because if your products do not support it, it may not do you as much good as you want. If they do support it, it is a great way to add additional layers of security, not only to your computers but website logins and other avenues of hardware protection. 

I would rate Cisco Duo an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Fawaz Sidheek - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Manager at Integrated Dawiyat
Real User
Top 5
Feb 11, 2026
Mfa has strengthened compliance and reduced authentication costs for internal and external access
Pros and Cons
  • "Cisco Duo has helped my organization reduce its overall authentication-related costs."
  • "I evaluate the stability and reliability of the solution as somewhat tricky. Cisco Duo Access Gateway is mostly VM-based, and while I'm not sure whether there is an on-premises hardware-based solution, having this VM-based solution can be buggy."

What is our primary use case?

Our company's use case is that we are a service provider, basically a wholesale provider for the internet and the data we have. We have internal users as well as external service providers who want to connect to our company, and they use MFA from Cisco Duo.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature of Cisco Duo is the MFA itself, and the integration is pretty straightforward. The documentation is good.

Cisco Duo helps improve a company through security, and we have the regulatory compliances we have to meet by having Cisco Duo's MFA enabled. With Cisco Duo, we get that checkbox filled.

What needs improvement?

More documentation on how to integrate all the external applications would be beneficial for Cisco Duo. We have lots of third-party applications, especially our in-house applications, and additional documentation on how to integrate those applications for MFA using Cisco Duo would be helpful.

I evaluate the stability and reliability of the solution as somewhat tricky. Cisco Duo Access Gateway is mostly VM-based, and while I'm not sure whether there is an on-premises hardware-based solution, having this VM-based solution can be buggy. There are a lot of issues, and when something goes down or if there is an issue in the network, the whole solution goes down, affecting the whole company because the MFA is tied to login for an administrator and to login for a user. This needs to be improved; the solution, which includes the gateways and proxies connecting to it, needs to be more reliable.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Duo for around five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I evaluate the stability and reliability of the solution as somewhat tricky. Cisco Duo Access Gateway is mostly VM-based, and while I'm not sure whether there is an on-premises hardware-based solution, having this VM-based solution can be buggy. There are a lot of issues, and when something goes down or if there is an issue in the network, the whole solution goes down, affecting the whole company because the MFA is tied to login for an administrator and to login for a user.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution scales for us.

Scalability-wise, resources for the VM are mostly what is required, and we have them in-house. For the licenses, that aspect is covered with support.

How are customer service and support?

I have used support for Cisco Duo.

I evaluate Cisco's support as very good. We have the highest level of support, including a tech specialized support team dedicated to our account. We have weekly and monthly meetings where they advise us on what to do, how to proceed with upgrades, or any enhancements.

How would you rate customer service and support?

Negative

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

When we went for an MFA, we were focused on Cisco Duo, and the way it functioned seamlessly integrated with our security policies. We did not evaluate others.

How was the initial setup?

My experience with the pricing, setup costs, or licensing for Cisco Duo is straightforward. We've had good interaction with the Duo team, and they always advise us. We have the highest level of support, so they come back to us with what is the recommended licensing, expiry, renewals, and pricing.

What was our ROI?

Cisco Duo has helped my organization reduce its overall authentication-related costs. The solution is pretty concise, not having a lot of tools or integration points like other providers.

When I look at the solution compared to other vendors, Cisco Duo is a one-stop shop for the whole MFA, so percentage-wise, I would say it's about 50%.

This 50% savings is over the five years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Evaluating the delivered cost, I find the choice to go with Cisco Duo is good. There were not many options available in the market. We had Cisco Duo, and we just appreciated the way it's delivered. It's functionally doing the MFA, and we went for it.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When we went for an MFA, we were focused on Cisco Duo, and the way it functioned seamlessly integrated with our security policies. We did not evaluate others.

What other advice do I have?

I am not currently using Cisco Identity Intelligence.

I have not noticed an increase in phishing attacks in my organization recently.

I have not implemented Cisco Duo's end-to-end phishing resistance.

We manage user identities through our own Active Directory internally, not through Cisco Duo Directory.

Cisco Duo integrates with other products well; I've not had an issue, except for the custom-based applications where we faced a lot of challenges. We had to work with the Cisco Duo team to integrate our service provider applications, OSS/BSS.

My overall review rating for Cisco Duo is 8.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Feb 11, 2026
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reviewer2802273 - PeerSpot reviewer
Junior Information Technology Consultant Security at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
Feb 11, 2026
Security has improved as I control access, reduce shadow accounts, and cut unused apps
Pros and Cons
  • "With Cisco Duo it's checking if you are allowed to submit a request to access this, doing a complete check of you before you access, instead of being just a simple MFA that only asks if you can go in or not."
  • "The experience of the deployment with Cisco Duo is pretty rough."

What is our primary use case?

The main use cases for Cisco Duo are for people who don't have a multi-factor authenticator. This is concerning because when you work in IT, you assume you are talking to technical people. Sometimes they are a director of the IT department, and when I ask them, "What do you have for an MFA?" they respond, "We don't." So I say, "Okay, let's talk about Cisco Duo and how you can implement it in order to secure your organization." That's the main case.

We place Cisco Duo Identity Intelligence with the customers against Shadow IT because sometimes we have the feeling that the customers have a lot of platforms. They have thousands of accounts they are using. In general, customers are using around 100 SaaS applications in a company, and sometimes they don't really know what they have. Sometimes, some workers are not there anymore, and it's possible that they can lose track of who is still in the company and who is not. That's why with Cisco Duo Identity Intelligence, I am able to provide a complete overview of what they have. Now they can check who is still using the system. It's good against Shadow IT, but it's also good if you are paying for an app and you don't use it anymore. You can cancel the subscription and get some money back.

What is most valuable?

What is good with Cisco Duo is I have to explain that it's not just an MFA because some customers already have an MFA in place. I can talk about other products from Microsoft or any other product, and they say, "We already have an MFA." So I have to explain to them that Cisco Duo is not just an MFA. With an MFA, you want to access something, and the MFA is going to check if you can enter, yes or no. It's not going to check your background or what you have. Cisco Duo is a pre-MFA and post-MFA. With Cisco Duo it's checking if you are allowed to submit a request to access this. If your company is just working with Windows and you are trying to access with a Mac, Cisco Duo is going to be able to say, "Why are you working with a Mac? It's not allowed," so you're not going to have a request. Or if you are, for example, working in Germany and you only have workers in Germany, and suddenly your IP address is in Spain, then I can explain to the customer, "Okay." The customer might say, "Okay, I have a request from Spain, but we don't have people working in Spain, even remotely. So we will block it directly." That's the good thing. It's comparable to when you want to go to a nightclub, they ask you if you are 18, but they also check it with your ID card and everything. It's the same with Cisco Duo. They do a complete check of you before you access.

What needs improvement?

I have not implemented Cisco Duo's end-to-end phishing-resistant capabilities such as proximity verification.

I have not deployed Cisco Duo Directory to manage the user identities, not yet, because since a lot of customers already have their own directories, it was not necessary with Cisco Duo. We still talk about it, but it was not necessary as of right now.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Cisco Duo for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would assess the stability and reliability of Cisco Duo as good. I have nothing to say. It's never had downtime, nothing. Cisco Duo cannot see your password. It's just sending the request. At no point in time does it see or save your password. That's also the good thing. And it's working with everything, and it's native on Linux. This means with some other products, I can get Linux to work, but I have to do some tricks. With Cisco Duo, it's already in. So if I have a server with Linux, it's perfect.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I think Cisco Duo is scalable in a growing company and it works well. It's very scalable. I can add users, and as far as I remember, if I cross the line with the users, I will get a notification stating, "You need to upgrade," but it's not blocked. This means it's not that I add one user and now everything is locked. I have a lot of leeway. I can improve, and I will have a notification and still have time to pay more. Regarding the scalability, I just add one new customer, and after I upgrade my license directly from the dashboard as an admin, that's it. There's nothing else to do.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I had something before Cisco Duo. It was a Windows MFA. I don't know the name. A Windows solution. But once again, the Windows solution is like, "Can you go in, or not? Is it you?" "But where are you? And is it really you?" That's the problem.

How was the initial setup?

The experience of the deployment with Cisco Duo is pretty rough. The software itself is good. The software itself is not the problem. The problem with customers is I have to change their habits. There are some people who don't want an MFA on their phone. It's easy for people who have a company phone and people who have a private phone. In some companies, they just have a private phone; they don't have a company phone. Since it's not always GDPR-friendly, with an MFA I can still send some information. Some people don't want to do it. I think it's rough in the sense that I have to educate the customers to use it and install it, because some people don't want to install it. Or if they really don't want an app, I still have the possibility to buy keys or to install a token on a USB key. But the deployment with the software itself is good. It's more about doing the education for the customers.

What was our ROI?

I have seen a return on investment with Cisco Duo. The good thing is the MFA is free. I can use it. I have Cisco Duo on my phone for free, so everybody can use and install it, up to 10 users. So it's good. I can start with this. The return on investment is that I present the product, and the customer, even if he doesn't click immediately about the features, after that, he will just log himself into the panel and see, "Oh, there's this. I would like to try this feature." So he will upgrade your service because as soon as he discovers new functionalities and thinks it is cool, then he will buy it. The return on investment is very nice.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I did not really consider another solution before selecting Cisco Duo.

What other advice do I have?

I haven't noticed an increase in phishing attacks lately. We do have some in our company. We saw an improvement. I think it's always the same as before, but now it's more improved. It's comparable to the following scenario: "We are the police and you did access a website you were not supposed to. This is the company headquarters. Please click here in order to report yourself or you will be fired." I think there's been an improvement in creativity. Not in numbers, but in creativity. Before there was, "You've won an iPhone" or "You've won one million. Please click here." Now they cannot do this anymore. You have to improve your creativity to find a new way to trick the customers.

The pricing for Cisco Duo is really good in the sense that you can try it. There are different packages, and you can choose the one that fits you the most, and you can try it for free for 30 days. So it's a very good catch. And for the price, I think it's worth it. I have not received any bad feedback about the price. I think it's okay.

We were talking about proximity with Bluetooth for Cisco Duo, but now it's been released, which is good because sometimes attackers use MFA fatigue, which means they will bombard you with push requests for everything. But now you need the device you're using to log in to be connected via Bluetooth next to the device you are also using to log yourself in. So that's good. It was one feature I had the idea for, and now I saw that they are doing it. That's excellent.

I would rate this review a 9 out of 10.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud

If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Last updated: Feb 11, 2026
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CISO at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Feb 1, 2026
Strong zero trust security has supported complex federal IAM migrations and multi‑cloud access
Pros and Cons
  • "My experience with Cisco Duo's strong security authentication system has been good; it is seamless and easy to integrate, and it is flexible."

    What is our primary use case?

    Cisco Duo's main use case is with Federal, specifically a version for the government, positioned side-by-side with Okta. Originally, it was implemented with the Department of Defense, which ran the traditional Oracle IAM. Someone convinced them that the Oracle IAM was obsolete, so they decided to reverse engineer the entire system. The migration involved reverse engineering the Oracle IAM into Cisco Duo and Okta, transitioning from on-premises to the cloud while maintaining integration with Oracle Cloud due to their heavy investment in Oracle Cloud for EBS, HCM, and enterprise ERP systems.

    What is most valuable?

    The best features of Cisco Duo include easy integration. I could do a lot of things with Cisco Duo comprehensively. Multiple types of MFA are available, and the fact that it passed the certification with the Department of Defense gave Cisco Duo an A+.

    I use Cisco Duo's Advanced Identity Threat Detection and Response feature, which includes all the necessary counterparts. It has the intelligence to detect threats, performs risk assessment, and then provides a score to determine whether someone is legitimately attempting to sign in.

    This feature has been helpful because it validates while maintaining trust. The trust but verify design principle is fundamental. Cisco Duo includes the Zero Trust Architecture, where everything lists a privilege, and from there, Privileged Access Management applies. If you want to elevate someone and give them additional privileges, the system handles that process.

    What needs improvement?

    I have not had the chance to rate Cisco Duo's support because I pass my documentation to the group responsible for creating tickets, as being a contractor, I don't have the account permissions to create tickets myself. I document everything with screenshots and pass it along. Based on what I heard regarding their response, Cisco Duo's support is pretty good. They are responsive and accurate in their responses, and they do their homework. This is one thing I now observe as a stark contrast with Oracle, where the support experience is terrible. You need to create a ticket, and then I have to call back and create another ticket just to monitor the first ticket. With no responses on those two, I had to create a third ticket to monitor the second ticket. I created about 33 tickets on this IAM thing because there was an intermediary, Accenture Federal. I created about 33 tickets just to monitor the previous tickets, and no resolution was given. I came up with my own solution.

    I am not involved with Cisco Duo's pricing, so I am the person where they said, 'We bought this product, go ahead and do your magic.'

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I was introduced to Cisco Duo when I worked for University of Massachusetts in 2012. I have had multiple projects since then because I have encountered clients with all kinds of IAM. One group does not want to give up their IAM because it works well with their application.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    Cisco Duo is stable and reliable in my opinion. The fact that it goes into production means it goes through the ATO process, where everybody tests it and different groups conduct their own testing. I have not encountered any issues unless we patch the environment. The only downtime I have encountered is during patching, but that is not due to Cisco Duo. That is part of the maintenance standard operating procedure.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Cisco Duo is pretty scalable.

    How are customer service and support?

    Based on what I heard regarding their response, Cisco Duo's support is pretty good. They are responsive and accurate in their responses, and they do their homework.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    Positive

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    The main differences between Cisco Duo and Okta for IAM solutions are that Okta does not have an exclusive product tagged as Federal. It depends on the person designing it. The way I made Okta comparable with Cisco Duo Federal is by attaching it to CAC, which is used by the military as military ID. That is the only way it becomes federal level because you are using another form of identification. With Cisco Duo, it is embedded within the system. However, somehow, the Department of Defense got sold on the idea that Okta is the way to go. Gradually, Cisco Duo is there because of Cisco. The name Cisco behind it makes it a really powerful product.

    What other advice do I have?

    I have experience with Cisco Duo across different IGA and IAM security products including Oracle IAM, Okta, SailPoint, Ping, Cisco Duo, Active Directory, and Entra ID, which is Microsoft's offering.

    My experience with Cisco Duo's strong security authentication system has been good. It is seamless and easy to integrate. It is flexible.

    Cisco Duo's IAM is evolving because it now includes AI. I am not sure if I have fully used OAuth, the authorization component. I think it is there, but I just have not fully played with it. The OAuth, OpenID, and SAML are all present, but this IAM is evolving.

    I have not had the chance to use Cisco Duo's conversational AI interface for administration tasks. Everything now is AI-enabled, but the government is very cautious about that. It is a switch that you can turn off and turn on if you want it.

    The passwordless environment has been the subject of a huge debate about passwords. I even gave a presentation with the Department of Energy, and they did not like the way I presented it. I made a joke and said, 'With passwords, you need to extract the blood of the person you want to authenticate, aside from the password,' and they did not like that. They said it was too bloody. With passwordless authentication, FIDO 1, 2, and 3 are the direction everything is going. Everything is keys now, anywhere, and tokens. That is why Oracle IAM was dropped from the equation.

    Cisco Duo is hybrid. First, they want to see it on-premises, and from there, it evolves because of the way things are deployed. They start with the application, the databases are on-premises, and then the applications are moved to the cloud. That becomes a hybrid situation, and then one by one, the databases are transported to the cloud.

    When you work on government projects, everything is there with Cisco Duo. AWS, Azure, GCP, and Oracle FedRAMP are all available. It is multi-cloud.

    I would rate this review a 9 overall.

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    Last updated: Feb 1, 2026
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    Charles A - PeerSpot reviewer
    Deputy Director at a healthcare company with 5,001-10,000 employees
    Real User
    Top 5Leaderboard
    Jun 10, 2026
    Strong multifactor security has reduced login issues and has improved user activity insight
    Pros and Cons
    • "The stability and good performance of the MFA are notable since it responds within seconds, and perhaps the algorithm is good when compared to other providers' MFA algorithms."
    • "The only issue is the price is too high when compared to other products; Cisco Duo's pricing is high."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are not using Cisco Duo for general purposes. Our requirements for a specific project show that we need Cisco Duo, which provides geo mapping and displays where the user will be putting the MFA and getting the MFA, so it will map the geolocation, everything.

    Using Cisco Duo, we do not get many calls, which we can attribute to this being a cloud-based service. We have tried some on-premises solutions, but when compared to this one, the performance is outstanding.

    We have used Cisco Duo only for MFA purposes, but I do not think they will implement AI features soon; perhaps it will come in the future.

    What is most valuable?

    Cisco Duo is our focus.

    It is a powerful tool; the only issue is the price is too high when compared to other MFA solutions.

    The stability and good performance of the MFA are notable since it responds within seconds, and perhaps the algorithm is good when compared to other providers' MFA algorithms.

    The reports and other information are very good because they will gather more insights about user activities.

    With MFA, it definitely identifies the user since it comes from the mobile.

    MFA is critical because without it, anybody can share their password and log in anytime. Tracking users becomes very difficult, especially regarding who has logged in. Now, they cannot share credentials as easily.

    What needs improvement?

    The problem is a user cannot remove Cisco Duo because they are not granted the privilege to do so; they need to use it. If they try to remove it, the application or service will not function because the MFA will not reach it.

    The only issue is the price is too high when compared to other products; Cisco Duo's pricing is high.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We implemented these solutions two to three years ago.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The only issue is the price is too high when compared to other products; Cisco Duo's pricing is high.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    On the technical side, Cisco Duo sounds solid.

    How are customer service and support?

    If we need a specific feature or application, we have an account manager from Cisco, and I can reach them directly.

    Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

    Since we are using the same product only, we have stopped using SolarWinds.

    Approximately three months ago, we started using Datadog.

    We are using Cisco Duo and ThousandEyes as well.

    How was the initial setup?

    Implementation and roll-out processes are simple; mostly the same across platforms.

    What about the implementation team?

    We have purchased directly through their official channels.

    What was our ROI?

    The technology is evolving, and we need to adopt the technology, otherwise we are outdated. This technology started now, and while it will not completely replace human efforts, it has reduced about 50% of the workload.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    When you compare products, Cisco Duo is costly; other products' prices are lower, but the stability of their products does not match that of Cisco Duo.

    Too many products are in the market.

    What other advice do I have?

    We are using some of the services; we have mapped Cisco Duo MFA, but not for all products.

    Not only Cisco Duo, but all products must develop their side to avoid becoming outdated; the technology landscape is evolving rapidly with new things. They should create new products and features to survive in the industry.

    AI-related technologies are more efficient now; reporting should be automated instead of requesting all these details manually. They should find and send reports to us.

    Without AI, no product will emerge in the future; all products will arise from AI technologies.

    That feature should be present in every product. My overall rating for this product is 8.8.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
    Last updated: Jun 10, 2026
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    Mohammed Abdul Hafeez Qureshi - PeerSpot reviewer
    Senior Iam Associate at Cognizant
    Real User
    Top 20
    Jan 9, 2026
    Centralized access has simplified secure logins and still needs richer dynamic identity features
    Pros and Cons
    • "The thing that I appreciate the most about Cisco Duo is the ease of setup."
    • "Conversational AI in Cisco Duo is limited in its current application."

    What is our primary use case?

    I have been working with Cisco Duo for close to three years now. As an administrator and IAM consultant, I use Cisco Duo primarily for Single Sign-On, MFA, or integrating applications with different security protocols. The whole point of having Cisco Duo is to ensure that you have a centralized point of managing where all devices, users, and identities are in your system or infrastructure.

    It helps in securing the applications.

    What is most valuable?

    I think Cisco Duo's identity intelligence capabilities are effective as long as you give the right policies to them. Defining your own set of policies is crucial to successfully utilizing the product's advanced features.

    The thing that I appreciate the most about Cisco Duo is the ease of setup. The implementation team does not have to spend more time on implementing or integrating the product. Their responsiveness is commendable, and they are easy to adapt to new trends in the market, which suits our business needs. The pricing of Cisco Duo is also quite reasonable compared to other products.

    The Advanced Identity Threat Detection and Response feature is similar to what I explained regarding AI and identifying threats.

    Windows Hello is a new feature Cisco Duo has started using recently. It allows a user to connect to the VPN and get access to applications without needing to re-enter passwords. Once a user is authenticated against the VPN in Cisco Duo, the Windows Hello feature allows immediate access to applications without requiring another password entry.

    What needs improvement?

    Conversational AI in Cisco Duo is limited in its current application. AI might help identify trends or user behavior as a threat, but its implementation needs to be directed.

    So far, I have not seen much need for improvement in Cisco Duo. It is user-friendly and reasonably priced, but it lacks some dynamic identity management features compared to other products such as SailPoint.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    From a stability perspective, I find Cisco Duo reliable as both products are hosted through AWS, contributing to a good security posture.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I think Cisco Duo scales effectively with the growing needs of my organization. They are understanding our expectations regarding changes and feature add-ons.

    How are customer service and support?

    I have raised many queries with Cisco Duo's technical support, and they have provided prompt responses. If I need further explanation, they get on a call with me.

    How would you rate customer service and support?

    How was the initial setup?

    The deployment of Cisco Duo is quite easy.

    What about the implementation team?

    The implementation team does not have to spend more time on implementing or integrating the product.

    What was our ROI?

    Regarding the ROI with Cisco Duo, resource saving is significant. When we use Cisco Duo for Single Sign-On, employees only need to remember a single set of credentials instead of multiple passwords. The ease in password resets for admins further enhances their business efficiency.

    What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

    The pricing of Cisco Duo is quite reasonable compared to other products.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I am currently working with ForgeRock and Okta as well as Cisco Duo.

    What other advice do I have?

    Cisco Duo has been purchased by the enterprise or the employer who is actually using it from the vendor. They would help you with all the initial setup, and later on, as your team expands or the infrastructure mingles with other vendors or partners, you would also need the product to have some sort of customization for the business needs.

    It is easy with Cisco Duo. I have seen one of the products which is quite easier. The branding makes it easier for the customer to trust that this is a product coming from a safe zone. The interface of Cisco Duo from the administration console point of view is quite decent.

    I endorse Cisco Duo and say that you should go for it. It is quite a good product and quite easy to get used to. My review rating for this product is seven out of ten.

    If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?

    Disclosure: PeerSpot contacted the reviewer to collect the review and to validate authenticity. The reviewer was referred by the vendor, but the review is not subject to editing or approval by the vendor.
    Last updated: Jan 9, 2026
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    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Cisco Duo Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: June 2026
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Cisco Duo Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.