Cisco Identity Services Engine and F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager compete in the access management solutions category. Cisco ISE seems to have the upper hand in Cisco environments due to its deep integration and feature set, while F5 APM provides superior session customization and cloud flexibility.
Features: Cisco ISE integrates with Cisco environments and offers features like 802.1X, TrustSec, and TACACS+. Its RADIUS feature supports Active Directory for user authentication, and it provides granular control over network access. F5 APM is praised for virtual IP creation, session customization, and seamless integration with various authentication protocols. It facilitates user session management and offers strong performance and reliability.
Room for Improvement: Cisco ISE's setup is complex with a steep learning curve, and there are issues with posture assessment stability and third-party integration. Its update process and interface could be improved. F5 APM requires better cloud support and post-acquisition service reliability, with calls for GUI improvements and easier identity provider integration.
Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Cisco ISE is mainly used on-premises with hybrid cloud support, backed by knowledgeable TAC teams, although support can be slow and require multiple engineers. F5 APM also offers hybrid deployments, with feedback indicating a need for better documentation and faster support. Cisco ISE benefits from structured ATC partner support, while F5 APM users report a more self-driven setup.
Pricing and ROI: Cisco ISE has complex pricing with multiple tiers, potentially leading to high costs for large networks, yet offers ROI through robust network protection and integration. Licensing confusion is reported, and there’s a move toward subscription models. F5 APM’s pricing is high but simpler, with cost justified by its security features. Both solutions deliver security and operational ROI, though Cisco's complexity and pricing are more commonly discussed.
I rate the technical support as one out of ten.
They are very poor in asset classification and should focus on improving the preauthentication profiling, especially for NAC use cases.
Factors like architecture, business nature, and legal limitations such as GDPR affect it.
Making large organizational costs significant.
The stability of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is poor for certain use cases, like authentication.
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) is very good at device administration.
Cisco ISE is an all-in-one solution that streamlines security policy management and reduces operating costs. Cisco ISE delivers visibility and access control over users and devices across wired, wireless, and VPN connections.
Identity Services Engine enables enterprises to deliver secure network access to users and devices. It shares contextual data, such as threats and vulnerabilities, with integrated solutions from Cisco technology partners. You can see what is happening in your network, which applications are running, and more.
Features of Cisco ISE
Benefits of Cisco ISE
Cisco’s holistic approach to network access security has several advantages:
Support
You can get ISE as a physical or virtual appliance. Both deployments can create ISE clusters that create scale, redundancy, and requirements.
Licensing
Cisco ISE has four primary licences. Evaluation for up to 100 endpoints with full platform functionality. The higher tiers are Partner, Advantage and Essential.
Reviews from Real Users
"The user experience of the solution is great. It's a very transparent system. according to a PeerSpot user in Cyber Security at a manufacturing company.
Omar Z., Network & Security Engineer at an engineering company, feels that "The RADIUS Server holds the most value."
“Whether I deploy in China, the US, South Africa, or wherever, I can get all the capabilities. It allows me to directly integrate with 365, and from a communications point of view, that is a good capability," says Rammohan M., Senior Consultant at a tech services company.
Hassan A.,Technology Manager at Advanced Integrated Systems, says that "The most valuable feature is the integration with StealthWatch and DNA as one fabric."
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) is an access management proxy solution for managing global access to the enterprise networks, cloud providers, applications, and application programming interfaces (APIs). Through a single management interface, BIG-IP APM consolidates remote, mobile, network, virtual, and web access.
BIG-IP APM can also serve as a bridge between modern and classic authentication and authorization protocols and methods. For applications which are unable to support modern authentication and authorization protocols, like SAML and OAuth with OIDC, but which do support classic authentication methods, BIG-IP APM converts user credentials to the appropriate authentication standard supported by the application.
BIG-IP APM Benefits:
BIG-IP APM Features:
Reviews from Real Users
Below are some reviews and helpful feedback written by BIG-IP APM users.
Mahmmoud Rabie, Senior Site Reliability Engineer, writes that BIG-IP APM is "A highly stable solution for load balancing, but the initial setup is complex."
Clyde Livingston, Senior Process Specialist at Telstra, says that BIG-IP APM is "Easy to use, useful access remotely, but lacking stability."
Chris Lam, Senior Solution Consultant at Macroview Telecom Limited, states that BIG-IP APM is "Useful for remote access VPN and VPI integration with VMware.
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