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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs NetIQ Identity Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Average Rating
8.2
Number of Reviews
139
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)
NetIQ Identity Manager
Average Rating
8.0
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
User Provisioning Software (9th), Identity Management (IM) (17th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and NetIQ Identity Manager 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 29.9%, down 31.4% compared to last year.
NetIQ Identity Manager, on the other hand, focuses on User Provisioning Software, holds 4.6% mindshare, down 5.7% since last year.
Network Access Control (NAC)
User Provisioning Software
 

Featured Reviews

Darren Hill - PeerSpot reviewer
Aug 3, 2023
Offers users the ability to be able to see what devices are actually on their network
I don't really know how to improve it, I think it's a great product. If I compare Cisco with something like ClearPass, for example, ISE is a lot more intuitive in terms of all the workflows and the work centers. They give you all the building blocks you need to be able to configure it. It's quite useful and quite easy to manage. If I was going to improve anything, it would be the ease of migration. It's really difficult at the moment if you're looking to upgrade ISE 2.1 and you want to go to ISE 3.1 or 3.2, that whole upgrade path and, particularly, the licensing is quite a minefield to sort out. If I wanted anything to be easier, it would be this.
MS
Mar 5, 2024
Offers self-service for both access request management and password management but issues with customer support
From an Identity Manager perspective, we do have role-based access control for a portion of our users. However, the capability is not as mature as what you'd find in other products. It lacks advanced features like the ability to mine tools or make decisions based on the roles assigned to others, offering very basic role management capabilities. The solution architecture is somewhat complex. For some components, the necessary resilience is not inherent. Introducing artificial intelligence to assist people and line managers in understanding what they are requesting or approving would be beneficial, enhancing the capabilities that are currently not as advanced as those in more popular products.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The way we can trust this solution is the most valuable. We have no issue with this product. It is a competitive product. You need to have a very good and deep knowledge of the product to take the full benefits of all the features, but it is a good product."
"I've had no issues with scalability. I started using it on two campuses, and now I'm using it across the country and scaling it across subsidiaries in other countries."
"A lot of customers use a third party to manage their guest Wi-Fi. Cisco ISE presents the ability to bring that in-house so that customers can have full control over it, change the branding, and get extra telemetry from it and the user data. It works really well for our customers."
"The access policies, and all of the policies in Cisco ISE, are important to us."
"It's easy to change and add policies."
"SGTs are valuable because they make it easy to enforce policies, instead of pushing them across all the other platforms."
"When you push out the policy, it is able to populate the entire network at one time."
"It provides client provisions and profiling as well as guest access."
"The main value lies in the simplicity of implementation, as well as its customized look and feel."
"I like the eDirectory feature."
"The most valuable feature of this solution has been the ability for us to integrate a lot of external systems, and the automatic transfer of a lot of identity information. Additionally, the customization is very good."
"The most valuable features are Password Reset Alerts, Password Sync, and SQL connectors."
"The most valuable feature of NetIQ Identity Manager for identity synchronization is the ability to provide users with all necessary access on day one through automated provisioning, facilitated by approval workflows."
"NetIQ does not have a limit on the number of users."
"It's a very flexible tool, so you can synchronize multiple sources of data and you have multiple connections to various kinds of systems."
"The product is easy to use."
 

Cons

"The intuitiveness of the user interface could be improved."
"When I work with customers to do my knowledge transfer, they're really overwhelmed with the navigation of the product and the number of things you can do with it. From a user interface standpoint, Cisco could focus on making certain tasks a bit more guided and easier for customers to walk through. That is, a user-friendly interface and streamlined workflows would be great."
"They should improve the upgrades. It's not easy to upgrade the solution."
"There are still some bugs in ISE that need to be worked out."
"The product is expensive. It would also be a good add-on to have some machine learning."
"I would like for the next release to be easier to implement and to limit its dependencies around ISE, Windows, the network as a whole, etc."
"I'm working from China currently and the only real issue is that, within the country, there's some concern around Cisco and its ability to offer the solution for the long term. As the United States has banned the Huawei version in their country, we feel there may be retaliation in ours and Cisco will get banned as a countermeasure from the government. The future of Cisco in China is in question. Our local partners are worried about the situation."
"Support and integration for the active devices needs to be worked on. Their features mainly work well with Mac devices. If we use an HP the Mac functionalities may no longer be able to deliver."
"If it could be operated in such a way that anybody could use it, with just the user interface, and there's no need for programming, then that would be a great improvement."
"Areas for improvement are further enhancing the access granting process to reduce time and improve accuracy."
"The solution architecture is somewhat complex. For some components, the necessary resilience is not inherent."
"There's no huge thing missing, because it's already comprehensive. Now and then, however, there might be a minor issue."
"The integrations must be made easier."
"We have another system that is using the SAML system, and we also integrate with Active Directory only. If NetIQ Identity Manager can integrate directly, we would not need to use the Active Directory directory."
"The interface is old and outdated, and the design software seems archaic."
"NetIQ Identity Manager could improve by updating the user portal, it is out of date."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing is a disaster. It's a mess and I hope they fix it soon."
"It's damn expensive and the licensing is terrible... If you have perpetual licenses on 2.7 and you upgrade to 3, you are forced to go with Essentials. That is one of the issues that I'm seeing with my clients now."
"The price of Cisco ISE (Identity Services Engine) is expensive and we are thinking about changing to FortiGate."
"Cisco has actually transitioned to a lot of subscription models, fees, and licenses."
"The price of the solution is price fair for the features you receive."
"Cisco is moving towards a subscription service, which would mean additional costs."
"For the Avast virus scan, we pay around USD $95 per machine for five years which includes all updates and technical support."
"The price can be lower, especially for subscriptions. It should be a lot cheaper to have a wide range of customers. The price should be comparable to competitive products like Forescout or Fortinet FortiNAC. Forescout is cheaper for customers looking for a cloud solution."
"It would easily help them in getting more market and more customers if more consultants knew about their software. If they could keep it free for schools for teaching purposes, it would be good. I had to pay myself to get it and use it for training. Their competitors are giving it for free. I had to pay for it myself. They are losing market to their competitors."
"The price of the solution is a bit high and could be reduced."
"The solution is quite affordable."
"You just need to be aware that the more systems you connect, the more license fees you have to pay."
"Micro Focus is flexible when it comes to price. The cost varies from customer to customer. There are no additional costs, though. Everything is included."
"I would rate the pricing a two out of ten, with one being low price and ten being high price. It is significantly more cost-effective than the major players in the market."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
25%
Computer Software Company
16%
Government
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
14%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
6%
 

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 NetIQ Identity Manager?
The most valuable feature of NetIQ Identity Manager for identity synchronization is the ability to provide users with all necessary access on day one through automated provisioning, facilitated by ...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetIQ Identity Manager?
The pricing depends on whether we buy the solution as a service or a license. The license is expensive. If we buy it as a service for a large number of users, it is the cheapest tool we can get. Th...
What needs improvement with NetIQ Identity Manager?
The tool is used mostly in big systems to understand what is happening. There are not many technicians who know how to use the product. The vendor must provide an easier console for configuring thi...
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
Novell Identity Manager
 

Learn More

 

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
Sheetz
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, HPE Aruba Networking, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: September 2024.
801,634 professionals have used our research since 2012.