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Cisco Secure Endpoint vs Microsoft BitLocker 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 Secure Endpoint
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
48
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) (13th), Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) (13th), Cisco Security Portfolio (6th)
Microsoft BitLocker
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.9
Number of Reviews
65
Ranking in other categories
Endpoint Encryption (1st), Mobile Data Protection (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Endpoint Security solutions, they serve different purposes. Cisco Secure Endpoint is designed for Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP) and holds a mindshare of 1.5%, down 1.9% compared to last year.
Microsoft BitLocker, on the other hand, focuses on Endpoint Encryption, holds 41.3% mindshare, up 39.8% since last year.
Endpoint Protection Platform (EPP)
Endpoint Encryption
 

Featured Reviews

Mark Broughton - PeerSpot reviewer
Tighter integration with Umbrella and Firepower gave us eye-opening information
We were using a third-party help desk. One of the ways that they were fixing problems was to delete the client and then add the client back if there was an issue where the client had stopped communicating. Any improvement in the client communicating back to the server would be good, particularly for machines that are offline for a couple of weeks. A lot of our guys were working on a rotation where the machine might be offline for that long. They were also terrible about rebooting their machines, so those network connections didn't necessarily get refreshed. So, anything that could improve that communication would be good. Also, an easier way to do deduplication of machines, or be alerted to the fact that there's more than one instance of a machine, would be useful. If you could say, "Okay, we've got these two machines. This one says it's not reporting and this one says it's been reporting. Obviously, somebody did a reinstall," it would help. That way you could get a more accurate device count, so you're not having an inflated number. Not that Cisco was going to come down on you and say, "Oh, you're using too many licenses," right away. But to have a much more accurate license usage count by being able to better dedupe the records would be good. I also sent over a couple of other ideas to our technical rep. A lot of that had to do with the reporting options. It would be really nice to be able to do a lot more in the reporting. You can't really drill down into the reports that are there. The reporting and the need for the documentation to be updated and current would be my two biggest areas of complaint. Also, there was one section when I was playing with the automation where it was asking for the endpoint type rather than the machine name. If I could have just put in the machine name, that would have been great. So there are some opportunities, when it comes to searching, to have more options. If I wanted to search, for example, by a Mac address because, for some reason, I thought there was a duplication and I didn't have the machine name, how could I pull it up with the Mac address? When you're getting to that level, you're really starting to get into the ticky tacky. I would definitely put the reporting and documentation way ahead of that.
Douglas Curry - PeerSpot reviewer
Users can easily deploy and manage it
The solution's most valuable feature is that it is simple to deploy and manage. I can't say what features of the tool I like since it is very much a deploy-and-forget product. We don't use any advanced features of the tool in my company. The tool's recovery options are good, especially since it integrates with Active Directory, making everything a simple process. The product's integration capabilities are good.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution makes it possible to see a threat once and block it everywhere across all endpoints and the entire security platform. It has the ability to block right down to the file and application level across all devices based on policies, such as, blacklisting and whitelisting of software and applications. This is good. Its strength is the ability to identify threats very quickly, then lock them and the network down and block the threats across the organization and all devices, which is what you want. You don't want to be spending time working out how to block something. You want to block something very quickly, letting that flow through to all the devices and avoiding the same scenario on different operating systems."
"The ability to detonate a particular problem in a sandbox environment and understand what the effects are, is helpful. We're trying, for example, to determine, when people send information in, if an attachment is legitimate or not. You just have to open it. If you can do that in a secure sandbox environment, that's an invaluable feature. What you would do otherwise would be very risky and tedious."
"The product itself is pretty reliable. The security features that it has make it reliable."
"The entirety of our network infrastructure is Cisco and the most valuable feature is the integration."
"Any alert that we get is an actionable alert. Immediately, there is information that we can just click through, see the point in time, what happened, what caused it, and what automatic actions were taken. We can then choose to take any manual actions, if we want, or start our investigation. We're no longer looking at digging into information or wading through hundreds of incidents. There's a list which says where the status is assigned, e.g., under investigation or investigation finished. That is all in the console. It has taken away a lot of the administration, which we would normally be doing, and integrated it into the console for us."
"Integration is a key selling factor for Cisco security products. We have a Cisco Enterprise Agreement with access to Cisco Email Security, Cisco Firepower, Cisco Stealthwatch, Cisco Talos, Cisco Threat Grid, Cisco Umbrella, and also third-party solutions. This is key to our security and maximizing operations. Because we do have the Email Security appliance and it is integrated with Threat Response, we have everything tied together. Additionally, we are using the Cisco SecureX platform, as we were a beta test for that new solution. With SecureX, we are able to pull all those applications into one pane for visibility and maintenance. This greatly maximizes our security operations."
"The simplicity of use is its most valuable feature. You can very clearly see things."
"The biggest lesson that I have learned from using this product is that there is a lot more malware slipping through my email filters than I expected."
"The tool is stable."
"The ease of administering and integrating the solution is great."
"The platform provides good performance."
"It comes bundled with other Microsoft solutions."
"Microsoft BitLocker can be used to ensure that stolen PCs or laptops do not lose their data."
"Microsoft BitLocker's most valuable features are stability and simplicity in terms of usage."
"It is free and native to the OS. We don't have to worry about upgrades or maintaining the product. You encrypt the disk, and you save the recovery key. That's it. The person puts their password in, and after that, it is up to them. If they forget their password, they have to bring it in to get it unlocked."
"The solution's most valuable feature is that it is simple to deploy and manage."
 

Cons

"The one challenge that I see is the use of multiple endpoint protection platforms. For instance, we have AMP, but we also have Microsoft Windows Defender, System Center Endpoint Protection, and Microsoft Malware Protection Engine deployed. So, we have a bunch of different things that do the same thing. What winds up happening is, e.g., if I get an alert for a potential incident or malware and want to pull the file, I'll go to fetch the file to analyze it. But, one of these other programs has already gotten it, so the file has already been quarantined by another endpoint protection system. AMP doesn't realize that and the file fetch fails, then you're left wondering what's going on."
"In Orbital, there are tons of prebuilt queries, but there is not a lot of information in lay terms. There isn't enough information to help us with what we're looking for and why we are looking for it with this query. There are probably a dozen queries in there that really focus on what I need to focus on, but they are not always easy to find the first time through."
"It is not very stable because we have new versions four times a year, which fixes bugs. We had some problems with some deployments."
"In the next version of this solution, I would like to see the addition of local authentication."
"We had a lot of noise at the beginning, and we had to turn it down based on exclusions, application whitelisting, and excluding unknown benign applications. Cisco should understand the need for continuous updates on the custom Cisco exclusions and the custom applications that come out-of-the-box with the AMP for Endpoints."
"Maybe there is room for improvement in some of the automated remediation. We have other tools in place that AMP feeds into that allow for that to happen, so I look at it as one seamless solution. But if you're buying AMP all by itself, I don't know if it can remove malicious software after the fact or if it requires the other tools that we use to do some of that."
"The integration of the Cisco products for security could be better in the sense that not everything is integrated, and they aren't working together. In addition, not all products are multi-tenant, so you can't separate different customer environments from each other, which makes it a little bit hard for a managed service provider to deliver services to the customers."
"An easier way to do deduplication of machines, or be alerted to the fact that there's more than one instance of a machine, would be useful... That way you could get a more accurate device count, so you're not having an inflated number."
"The solution could improve by having a centralized GUI for management."
"I would recommend BitLocker only because of the economic side, not the technical side. If the features were included in the already existing licenses I would use it. If not, I would recommend other products."
"The primary aspect for improvement lies in expanding our developer base, which would accelerate the development process and bring these enhancements to fruition"
"There is room for improvement in stability."
"The solution needs to have better protection and improve its pricing."
"We recently found some stability issues with Microsoft BitLocker."
"It needs a management console."
"They should offer better login capabilities that are more secure."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In our case, it is a straightforward annual payment through our Enterprise Agreement."
"Pricing is a big issue."
"The price is very fair to the customer."
"...the licensing needs to be improved. All the product features we need are there. It's just a matter of the complexity and the different offerings and trying to figure things out."
"Our company was very happy with the price of Cisco AMP. It was about a third of what we were paying for System Center Endpoint Protection."
"There are a couple of different consumption models: Pay up front, or if you have an enterprise agreement, you can do a monthly thing. Check your licensing possibilities and see what's best for your organization."
"Because we do see the value of what it's bringing, I think they have priced it well."
"Its price is fair for us."
"Microsoft BitLocker's pricing is included in the Microsoft license, and you don't have to pay an additional fee for it."
"It is a totally free solution."
"The solution’s pricing is reasonable."
"This solution is included with Microsoft Server and my clients did not have to pay for anything extra."
"We can activate the product at no cost."
"It operates on a subscription model on an annual basis."
"The solution is expensive."
"For reasons unknown, Microsoft products seem to be getting more expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
18%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
10%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Cisco Secure Endpoint?
The product's initial setup phase was very simple.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Cisco Secure Endpoint?
I am not entirely sure about the exact licensing cost. It ranges from 2,000 to 2,500 INR annually.
What needs improvement with Cisco Secure Endpoint?
Previously, there were options to uninstall the agent without a password if you had admin access, and this could be improved. It may require a password for uninstalling clients, which would be help...
What should one take into account when replacing PGP with Microsoft BitLocker?
Beware to make backup of useful data, then use reverse decryption policy from Symantec panel/McAfee ePO to decrypt the DE partitions while it is sometimes more straightforward and faster to reinsta...
Would you choose Microsoft BitLocker or McAfee Complete Data Protection?
Microsoft BitLocker is very intuitive and easy to maintain. It is basically the global standard solution for drive encryption and successfully fulfills regulatory needs in terms of data protection....
How does Microsoft BitLocker compare with Symantec Endpoint Encryption?
Microsoft BitLocker is very intuitive and easy to maintain. It is basically the global standard solution for drive encryption and it successfully fulfills regulatory needs in terms of data protecti...
 

Also Known As

Cisco AMP for Endpoints
BitLocker, MS BitLocker
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Heritage Bank, Mobile County Schools, NHL University, Thunder Bay Regional, Yokogawa Electric, Sam Houston State University, First Financial Bank
ACV, Proaxis Therapy, Choice Hotels International, adnymics GmbH, Intermedia, NMBS/SNCB
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