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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs RSA SecurID comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Cisco Identity Services Eng...
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
142
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (1st), Cisco Security Portfolio (1st)
RSA SecurID
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
9
Ranking in other categories
Authentication Systems (8th), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and RSA SecurID 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 27.1%, down 31.6% compared to last year.
RSA SecurID, on the other hand, focuses on Authentication Systems, holds 7.3% mindshare, up 7.2% since last year.
Network Access Control (NAC)
Authentication Systems
 

Featured Reviews

SunilkumarNaganuri - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced device administration hindered by complex deployment and security limitations
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) needs to improve the profiling preauthentication. They are very poor in asset classification and should focus on improving the preauthentication profiling, especially for NAC use cases. This will give them a roadmap for software-defined access (SDA) use cases and network segmentation. Threat detection capabilities are very weak. Additionally, the product is vulnerable and has many bugs.
Santhosh Rajamanickam - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced security, reliable, helpful technical support, and easy to install
RSA SecurID Access is a scalable solution. I would rate the scalability of RSA SecurID Access a nine out of ten. Initially, our organization had around 250 users for whom we were aware of the usage of the solution. However, there were certain users for whom we were not notified due to the nature of their job, and hence we were not aware of their usage. Eventually, we decided to scale the solution for all our 4,000 users. Currently, we are using it for 250 users only. There is a high likelihood that we will expand our usage in the future.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I really enjoy the live log section. Sometimes, you will have someone who is having issues connecting to the network, and then you have to ask them the dreaded question of, "Did you type a password wrong?" They will probably tell you, "No," but the live log can help sort that out. It gives us that extra ability to assist the end user and make sure that we are making them happy."
"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."
"We found all the features of the product to be valuable."
"Easy to use and provides good support"
"Cisco ISE integrates with everything else."
"The posture assessment is a valuable feature because of the ability to do assessments on the clients before they connect to the network."
"The most valuable feature is the visibility element, the ability for customers to be able to see what devices are actually on their network. Without a solution like ISE, they would have no idea what devices are connected to their network. It offers them the ability to authenticate devices via mobile."
"The feature that I found most valuable is profiling. We use that to profile certain types of devices, and then depending on the manufacturer, drop them into the appropriate VLAN without us having to go in and manually add the devices."
"I think it is really good when it comes to the hard token side of things."
"It is a scalable solution."
"One of the most valuable feature is the ID soft token and hard token."
"The most valuable features of RSA SecurID Access are push notifications, multifactor authentication, and ease of integration and deployment."
"I would say that the two-factor authentication and the ease of installation and configuration are the most valuable features of this solution."
 

Cons

"The web UI should be made similar to the one in DNAC."
"The opinion of my coworkers, and it's mine as well, is that the user interface could use some tender loving care. It seems counterintuitive sometimes. If you go to the logs, it's hard to figure out which one you need to look at."
"Cisco ISE requires a lot of time-consuming administration."
"There is room for improvement in its ability to allow end users to self-enroll their devices. Instead, you should be able to assign that permission by AD group, which is currently not available."
"Cisco ISE integration with Cisco ACI is something that can be done in a less complex way. And the simplification in that area may help us do better."
"I would rate this solution a 7.5 out of ten. To make it a ten they should have more people on tech support. They need to invest more in the product. It's a good product. They should just work on tech support. More support for the customer. It's not that easy to get somebody to understand this product. I have had some issues with tech before for the solution. One of them brought the solution down due to some of his activity. They need to hugely invest in their tech support."
"There should be more visibility into TrustSec policy actions. When TrustSec blocks something or makes any kind of changes to the network, we don't always see that. We have to log into the switch itself, or we have to get some type of Syslog parsing to do that."
"Documentation is probably the worst part of the software."
"Sometimes, we encounter issues with other applications that are not compatible with RSA SecurID Access and require expert troubleshooting. At those times, we need additional support from an implementation perspective. This is an area where Oracle can improve as there is no substitute for reliable and efficient support."
"The interface needs to improve a lot. It should be easier to manage and navigate."
"There are different compliances across the globe; RSA SecurID Access could be more complaint-based."
"It doesn't offer an agent-based or reverse-proxy-based approach to integration, which could enhance its flexibility."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a license to use this solution and the price is reasonable."
"For the Avast virus scan, we pay around USD $95 per machine for five years which includes all updates and technical support."
"The solution’s pricing is okay."
"Previously, Cisco ISE had a perpetual licensing model, but now they have shifted to a subscription-based licensing system."
"It is difficult to measure security breaches, but since we have not been attacked so far, it has paid for itself over the years."
"According to my sales and account team, the prices we're getting are pretty good."
"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 is fair."
"I think the price of this solution is reasonable compared to YubiKey and Duo given that it offers the same similar features."
"RSA SecurID Access is expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
28%
Computer Software Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Financial Services Firm
19%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

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 RSA SecurID Access?
The most valuable features of RSA SecurID Access are push notifications, multifactor authentication, and ease of integration and deployment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for RSA SecurID Access?
RSA SecurID Access is quite expensive. I would rate it a ten out of ten in terms of costliness.
What needs improvement with RSA SecurID Access?
There is room for improvement in a few areas. Firstly, it lacks support for OIDC and OS capabilities, making it less versatile for integrating various applications. Secondly, there are some limitat...
 

Also Known As

Cisco ISE
RSA SecurID Access, RSA Access Manager
 

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
Milliman, Geisinger Health System, Advanced Micro Devices
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: February 2025.
839,319 professionals have used our research since 2012.