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Forescout Platform vs Skybox Security Suite comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

Forescout Platform
Average Rating
8.4
Number of Reviews
75
Ranking in other categories
Network Access Control (NAC) (4th), IoT Security (1st), Endpoint Compliance (4th), Extended Detection and Response (XDR) (16th)
Skybox Security Suite
Average Rating
7.6
Number of Reviews
35
Ranking in other categories
Vulnerability Management (37th), Firewall Security Management (7th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Network Security Systems solutions, they serve different purposes. Forescout Platform is designed for Network Access Control (NAC) and holds a mindshare of 13.8%, up 12.5% compared to last year.
Skybox Security Suite, on the other hand, focuses on Vulnerability Management, holds 0.5% mindshare, down 0.7% since last year.
Network Access Control (NAC)
Vulnerability Management
 

Featured Reviews

Odai Halawani - PeerSpot reviewer
May 27, 2024
It's an easy and effective solution, especially for device profiling without agents
Forescout Platform works as our next-gen solution, helping us monitor and manage devices connected or disconnected from the network. Additionally, it assists in remediating noncompliant devices Forescout Platform's most valuable aspect is its excellent device profiling for devices without agents,…
NenadMijatovic - PeerSpot reviewer
Feb 8, 2024
Efficient in vulnerability management, stable and easy to use
Vulnerability management is the most valuable feature because it lets you focus on the most critical vulnerabilities. That's the important thing. Here in Serbia, there are not so many companies that have too many firewalls inside one company. So, they usually don't buy this model for Firewall Assurance unless there is some compliance. So you can prove that your firewalls are compliant. So, that model is not so important here in Serbia. It's for bigger companies. So, they usually buy network assurance to build the model of the network and vulnerability management to focus on the most important vulnerabilities. Moreover, Skybox can collect data for many vendors. From the endpoint protection vendors to the network equipment vendors to other security vendors. So, it supports more than one hundred vendors to collect data from them.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Forescout is easy to integrate with a lot of end systems."
"The valuable feature of the product stems from the fact that it is easy to implement."
"Provides a good overview of all devices on a network."
"The most valuable features are remote access and administration scripts."
"The most valuable feature of Forescout Platform is that it has everything that Aruba has at significantly less cost."
"Forescout Platform's most valuable features are that it is very granular. We are able to cull out a lot of information about our particular device or endpoint. The configuration and the visibility are very seamless. Overall the solution is very easy to handle and it's very comprehensive."
"It has helped with improving our security posture in terms of controlling the access of rogue devices into our network through identification. We have been able to prevent rogue device activities on the network, check the health of the system, and ensure remediation."
"I have noticed that in the last year the license model has changed from licensing the whole appliance to licensing the number of devices. It's more simple for a large installation, or a user to have CounterACT as their peripheral site in the company. It's a good choice to have changed the license policy."
"It's very supportive and very user-friendly."
"It shows me a client's or an organization's entire network. I can see everything."
"The product's most valuable feature is vulnerability management."
"instead of asking for firewall rules which may or may not be relevant, or could already be there, or could be over-permissioned, Skybox can be used to map out the resources that that application is going to use and provide the exact rules that an application would require to function correctly. If the traffic isn't able to flow for the application, if it's erring out, Skybox can be used to troubleshoot that and say, "All right, where is the traffic being stopped and why, and how do I fix that.""
"The way that it's built with three-tier architecture, it makes it very horizontally scalable, so I can have multiple fallbacks. If one machine does fall offline, there are four other machines that are doing the exact same job to pick it up"
"Skybox deployment is simple, and it's very useful."
"When you import all the assets that you have, like desktops, servers, networks, devices, routers, and then firewalls, and other products, then Skybox makes like, a model of the network, but with context. So, it is not just a model in VIZIO. Or something like it like that. You get the model with context, and, like, it looks like a real network in a real-time. So you can check your network and the security of your network on that model."
"The most impressive feature is optimization and clean-up."
 

Cons

"The solution does have a bit of complexity, and there's some complexity in the deployment. Users need to be trained before undertaking an initial setup."
"Can be expensive if it's only being used for one feature."
"The licensing costs are quite high. With the amount of hardware we have, we need too many licenses to make the product effective and it's ultimately just too costly."
"The reporting feature needs improvement."
"The ability to block external devices in Mac is lacking and needs to be added."
"Definitely, having more third-party integration would be an improvement."
"Forescout Platform could improve the costs of integrations."
"The biggest disadvantage is the pricing."
"If anything could be improved it would be staying on top of the collector scripts, but I understand that's a very tough challenge."
"The most recent update was not tested with all of the vendors before it was released, so some of the features are misbehaving."
"The Network Assurance, which helps to create the network model, is not so rich."
"There is room for improvement in pricing. It would be better, especially if a customer bought all four modules."
"Change Manager can be improved. If they can improve Change Manager so that whatever we want to do on a firewall, we are able to do it through Change Manager, it will be helpful for us. Whenever we are doing a change, it only does them at an L3 and L4 level, but all the firewalls are at the application layer. So, whatever needs to be done on the firewall, we aren't able to get it done through Change Manager. Currently, this functionality is not there because of which we are sometimes losing customers. I can create a role on Layer 3, Layer 4, but when it comes to the application layer, such as configuring and defining URLs or other things at the application level, it can't be done through Change Manager. Customers demand that they should be able to do everything through Change Manager. They don't want to do it through some other mechanism to accomplish their complete change management policy. They don't want to use a firewall manager because sometimes, they don't have any manager. They ask if they can use our solution so that a manager is not required. If Change Manager can do all the management automatically without involving any other manager, it will be great. They can also provide better integration with other managers so that everything can be done through a central point."
"The solution needs improvement in firewall configuration checks. I would also like to see more configuration checks for Forcepoint and for other non-supported firewalls."
"The price could be cheaper."
"The solution was quite technical. It would be easier to manage if the solution was more specific about aspects of the solution and provided more advisory around how to use it effectively. It would help users a lot if they were more clear about everything."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The price of the Forescout Platform is expensive. I purchased it for approximately 94 lakhs."
"The price of Forescout is reasonable when compared to Cisco ISE."
"The tool's pricing is expensive but reasonable."
"There are no additional costs that I am aware of."
"They base the license on the number of devices, which is quite misleading."
"We need to pay for integration for each integration that we want to do and there is an additional license fee. This adds more costs. It is not something that anyone can afford. If you want to integrate this with a lot of other tools, it can be costly."
"We went with the virtual appliance option. The biggest cost to running these types of appliances would be to either have multiple virtual appliances at every data center or running Remote SPAN hardware to provide you the real-time network visibility."
"It's about $160,000, but I'm not sure how long that is for or what it includes. Because we were a test base, we were provided with servers, but now, Forescout wants us to buy servers because those servers are now end-of-life or end-of-service. For our lifecycle management program, in order to get a refresh on those servers, we would have to buy servers or use our own network resources to house Forescout. Forescout takes up about 13 or 14 virtual CPUs."
"The software is expensive. I rate its pricing an eight out of ten."
"The product's pricing is excellent value. In terms of licensing, make sure you understand your network components, all your hops through your network, thoroughly, before you decide on the total cost. If you want to do point-to-point flow analysis and such, you need to have the configuration of all the devices in between point A and point B. A lot of people don't realize all their network components until they start using this product."
"I rate the pricing two on a scale of one to ten, where one is very expensive, and ten is cost-effective."
"I think the price is fair."
"With licensing, the number of network nodes becomes very expensive to the point where you have to rationalize if the tools are warranted anymore."
"Currently, the licensing costs me about $300 USD for the year. This is a huge amount for my environment."
"The solution is based on a subscription model for annual licenses."
"It's expensive."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
32%
Computer Software Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
Computer Software Company
18%
Financial Services Firm
16%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
Forescout is a very powerful NAC product that does not rely on port level configuration. It can detect and block unauthorized devices very quickly. But it has a lot of capabilities and really would...
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
I would rate the Forescout Device and Visibility Control Platform at a six out of ten.
What advice do you have for others considering Forescout Platform?
I recommend doing a compression demo. If people use it, they will buy it. So they have to see the product in place. That's the main recommendation is to do a proof of concept. If they do, they will...
What do you like most about Skybox Security Suite?
Overall, the tool has helped us reduce risks. If any step is missing, it's easier for my team or engineers to identify it. The tool provides accurate recommendations based on the data. Its integrat...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Skybox Security Suite?
Skybox Security Suite has indeed helped us reduce costs. The prices of AlgoSec and Skybox Security Suite are approximately 50 percent different. The tool may require special vendor support from abr...
What needs improvement with Skybox Security Suite?
There is room for improvement in the product's user interface. It could be more user-friendly.
 

Also Known As

Forescout Platform, CounterACT for Endpoint Compliance, ForeScout CounterACT
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

NHS Sussex, SAP, SEGA, Vistaprint, Miami Children's Hospital, Pioneer Investments, New York Law School, OmnicomGroup, Meritrust
ADP, Blue Cross Blue Shield, BT, USAID, Delta Dental, EDF Energy, EMC, HSBC, Johnson & Johnson
Find out what your peers are saying about Cisco, HPE Aruba Networking, Fortinet and others in Network Access Control (NAC). Updated: October 2024.
814,649 professionals have used our research since 2012.