We use Pulse to access our internal network, as it is the only solution that has been approved by our cyber security team. We also have to use both VPN and Secure VPN for added security.
Consultant at Saudi Telecom Company
Securely access internal networks, and easy to setup
Pros and Cons
- "The initial setup is straightforward."
- "The user experience has room for improvement."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
In order to access an internal server from another country, we must use Pulse Secure.
What needs improvement?
The user experience has room for improvement. Sometimes when we have two profiles it is not easy to use.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for five years.
Buyer's Guide
Ivanti Connect Secure
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Ivanti Connect Secure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used the open-source version which did not have the same scope so we switched to the licensed version to meet our organization's requirements.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution a nine out of ten.
I would recommend the solution.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Associate Network Engineer at a computer software company with 11-50 employees
User-friendly with a nice UI and an easy installation process
Pros and Cons
- "The new UI that they are providing right now is very good."
- "We need to know how many live active users there are and we can't. We even updated the server, however, we still can't see the proper level of live connections. Right now, it's showing as 300 users and my customer does not have that many users in his organization."
What is our primary use case?
The solution is primarily used as a VPN. There's an agent that can work with Linux, Mac, or Windows and it will provide a VPN tunnel to connect to the server. That way, it's easy to access the server. Based on the rules that have been configured, users would get specific levels of access.
What is most valuable?
The interface is so simple for the user to access. Its layout is very user-friendly.
The new UI that they are providing right now is very good.
They have a lot of good features, and everything we need is basically covered.
It is very easy to install the solution.
What needs improvement?
I've had a customer face some issues with connection logs and live status. They had trouble with how many users were connected. There seems to be some sort of bug related to this that I would like to be fixed. We need to know how many live active users there are and we can't. We even updated the server, however, we still can't see the proper level of live connections. Right now, it's showing as 300 users and my customer does not have that many users in his organization.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for 1.5 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Overall, it is a stable product. We've had very few issues using it. I'd rate the stability eight out of ten overall. So far, this version has been quite reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Pulse, like every box, has their dependency. If you are using a 5,000 or a 3,000, you can only connect X number of users according to the size of the box. Therefore, if you buy a bigger size, you can scale easily. You do, however, need to plan accordingly.
In terms of the ability to scale, I would rate the solution seven out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is responsible and they offer good support. Overall, they give you support in a reasonable amount of time and get you whatever you require. When you raise a case, they tackle that case. The escalation is also good. The team has knowledgeable engineers which understand the product and have experience with that product.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The installation process is very simple and straightforward. I'd rate the ease of setup 8.5 out of ten.
If you have a basic knowledge of networking and servers, you can easily deploy a server in a virtual platform or in your on-premises device.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I don't have any knowledge in relation to pricing.
What other advice do I have?
The product can be installed on-premises, on the cloud, or on VMware.
If potential new users are going to use this solution, then they are using a great product. It will give you the support you need and fulfill your requirements.
I'd rate the solution nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Buyer's Guide
Ivanti Connect Secure
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Ivanti Connect Secure. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
816,562 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Senior Research Associate at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
This is a very reliable, stable, and easy-to-use solution
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable features of the solution are reliability and uptime."
- "The solution can be improved by addressing the failure to connect on public 2-step networks."
What is our primary use case?
The primary use case of this solution is to securely connect to our company network through its VPN.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable features of the solution are reliability and uptime.
What needs improvement?
The solution has difficulty functioning when I connect through public WiFi like an airport. Whenever you are prompted to go to a website before accessing the internet, provide your email, or acknowledge that use of the WiFi, the solution doesn't work. The solution can be improved by addressing the failure to connect on public 2-step networks.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for just over one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. We have hundreds of employees using the solution on a daily basis with no issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is scalable. We have 50,000 employees in our company and hundreds are using the solution each day.
How was the initial setup?
From a user perspective, the initial setup is extremely straightforward. I only had to call IT and enter my IP address and credentials to use the solution.
What other advice do I have?
I give the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Other
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Security Consultant at Vibs
A secure network access solution with a useful host checker and application-based access feature
Pros and Cons
- "I like the host checker, which thoroughly checks the security posture of the machine before allowing access. I also like application-based access and its seamless operations."
- "User experience and after-sales support could be better. For example, over the last couple of years, when this COVID scenario was going on, there were multiple attacks on these types of solutions. SQL has been attacked numerous times, and there were a lot of vulnerabilities, and our customers had to update and upgrade the devices every two weeks or every month. This was a headache. It could also be more scalable."
What is our primary use case?
My customers use Pulse Connect Secure for remote user authentication, essentially multifactor authentication. Others use it to reroute multicast traffic from Palantir.
What is most valuable?
I like the host checker, which thoroughly checks the security posture of the machine before allowing access. I also like application-based access and its seamless operations.
What needs improvement?
User experience and after-sales support could be better. For example, over the last couple of years, when this COVID scenario was going on, there were multiple attacks on these types of solutions. SQL has been attacked numerous times, and there were a lot of vulnerabilities, and our customers had to update and upgrade the devices every two weeks or every month. This was a headache. It could also be more scalable.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Pulse Connect Secure for about three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Pulse Connect Secure is relatively stable.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give stability a seven.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Pulse Connect Secure could be more scalable. The on-prem solution is not very scalable. It has got some limitations because they have only a few models.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support could be better. Their knowledge and response time could be better. I think a lack of knowledge directly impacts the response time. However, it's like other OEMs I am dealing with.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup takes a few hours.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give the initial setup a nine.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pulse Connect Secure is relatively cost-effective.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give their pricing a four.
What other advice do I have?
I recommend this product because Pure Connect Secure is doing the job well. The GUI seems easy, and the deployment is straightforward compared to other OEMs. There are not many issues with the product right now.
On a scale from one to ten, I would give Pulse Connect Secure an eight.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
Freelancer at 0
A reliable and stable product that increases an organization’s productivity and is easy to use
Pros and Cons
- "The product is easy to use."
- "The solution must be more user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
We normally use the product for VPN connectivity to access applications and servers remotely. We also use it for applications like Teams and Outlook.
What is most valuable?
The product is easy to use. It is reliable. It is always available. It's quite transparent. The product is quite exhaustive for the end user. It serves the purpose. The traffic that is involved as part of the VPN is secure. The solution has increased our productivity. The updates are optimal.
What needs improvement?
The solution must be more user-friendly. It must show more connection details and statistics to the end user.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using the solution for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the tool’s stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have a few thousand users in our organization. It is used daily.
How was the initial setup?
The solution is easy to deploy. The deployment doesn’t take more than 15 minutes.
What about the implementation team?
The product can be deployed in-house.
What other advice do I have?
I will recommend the tool to others. Overall, I rate the product a ten out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Infrastructure Project manager at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Customer-friendly, flexible, and easy to deploy, but needs central management and better support and documentation
Pros and Cons
- "It is customer-friendly. It is quite easy for our users to connect. There is also the flexibility of the features."
- "We want to switch to another solution because there are some challenges with the support from Pulse. The quality of documentation is also not good. It is sometimes very hard to find documentation that provides a solution and describes how all this works."
What is our primary use case?
We are using it as a remote access solution for our users and partners.
What is most valuable?
It is customer-friendly. It is quite easy for our users to connect. There is also the flexibility of the features.
What needs improvement?
We want to switch to another solution because there are some challenges with the support from Pulse. The quality of documentation is also not good. It is sometimes very hard to find documentation that provides a solution and describes how all this works.
I definitely miss a single pane of glass where we can have several clusters deployed across the globe. We should have the capability to manage all clusters centrally. Currently, we have to log in locally on each cluster to see what is going on there. A single pane of glass for monitoring and viewing the overall health of our solutions, services, and licenses is currently missing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with Pulse for at least four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Recently, there were some issues, and we had to upgrade it quickly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
When it is on-prem, it is not so scalable. To scale the solution, you also need to deploy new machines and configure them from scratch. It is not as easy as a cloud solution where you scale automatically according to your needs. The problem for us is that it is on-prem.
How are customer service and technical support?
We are not satisfied with their support. They usually cannot find the solution to our problems. If they manage to find a solution, it is not mature. It is mostly a workaround with some hidden scripts.
How was the initial setup?
I did not participate too much in the installation, but it was quite straightforward to deploy and configure. There were no big challenges.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend it depending on the size of the organization. I would recommend it for small to medium size organizations but not for big global companies.
I would rate Pulse Connect Secure a six out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Engineer at SegurCaixa Adeslas
The best solution that can help you to make principal decisions
Pros and Cons
- "The solution helps with principal decisions. It also helps with the security and configuration of many technologies."
- "I would like the solution to be more secure and compatible. It also needs to improve integration with other systems."
What is our primary use case?
The solution helps with principal decisions. It also helps with the security and configuration of many technologies.
What needs improvement?
I would like the solution to be more secure and compatible. It also needs to improve integration with other systems.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with the solution for six months.
How are customer service and support?
The tool’s tech support is very good.
How was the initial setup?
The solution’s implementation took four months to complete.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Network Security Engineer at Smals vzw
Easy to set up with flexible management and good network resources
Pros and Cons
- "The flexibility in their management is great."
- "The stability could be better. There are sometimes bugs in the system."
What is our primary use case?
The product is used as a secure gateway - a gateway to give access to remote users by checking the user credentials and user authentication. It also checks the machine authentication and the machine security, by using host checking mechanisms. The product gives or allows access or authorizes access to certain resources based on the user credentials and the machine check.
What is most valuable?
They support a very extended or a list of resources, network resources, applications, whatever. They are very broad in supporting all kinds of resources.
The flexibility in their management is great. For us, there was no other product better than that.
The product is very easy to set up.
What needs improvement?
We would like to see them be a bit more swift in the changes in the protocols and the browsers. They are lagging a bit behind. Certainly, for the Pulse Desktop Client, they should really work on the modernization.
The stability could be better. There are sometimes bugs in the system.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for years already. The VPN solution has been taken out of the Juniper company and has been put into a new company, Pulse Secure, so we have been using this solution, the same solution, for years on.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
For many years, it was known as a very stable platform. However, now, they have a bit of difficulty really having a stable and robust product overall, end-to-end.
The central infrastructure is still very stable and robust, however, have troubles with security vulnerabilities and bugs in its code. They have a bit of trouble on those issues, on those topics in general.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is great. You can have whatever number of appliances you need.
We are an ISP, meaning we have different customers, and different organizations, for this VPN service. We have a very diverse set of clients. We have somewhere around 10,000 end-users for this platform.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using a Cisco VPN solution in the years starting around 2002 or 2003. A Juniper solution was chosen back around 2007. It changed names and we have been using it ever since.
How was the initial setup?
The implementation is rather easy. Installing out of the box, the application is easy to install and configure.
Deployment time depends on a few factors. For example, the primary installation, the primary configuration of the central infrastructure, only takes a couple of hours. Then, of course, to have all your different clients connected and connecting to the infrastructure, that's a project of months as you have to set up a whole project and communication strategy, and then you need a project manager to give clear guidance on this.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pulse Secure and Juniper are very expensive in their license cost. That's a drawback of this solution. The hardware is rather cheap, however, licensing is very, very, very expensive.
You have different kinds of licenses you can be used, depending on what kind of functionality you will be using with this infrastructure. Of course, you need to have support on these licenses also, and this is rather expensive also. You need a vendor or a supporting firm capable of supporting the functionality and the licenses linked to them.
What other advice do I have?
We are a customer and an end-user.
Last year, this solution was bought by Ivanti. Now it's called Ivanti Connect Secure. Basically, it's been the same product since 2007. It's still the same product yet it has been evolving, of course.
We are using the latest version of the solution.
I'd advise potential new users to do some homework on what network resources they want to present to their users, and what will be the conditions they will impose on their end-users as for users' credentials, for example, multi-factor authentication for start. Also, they should look at the host checking on their client PCs. For example, they need to consider what will be the conditions to access certain resources, as that will be important for their configuration at the outset.
I'd rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Ivanti Connect Secure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Updated: November 2024
Popular Comparisons
Cisco Secure Client (including AnyConnect)
F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM)
Citrix Gateway
Cisco IOS SSL VPN
SonicWall SMA
Systancia Gate
Array AG Series
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Ivanti Connect Secure Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros
sharing their opinions.
Quick Links
Learn More: Questions:
- What firewall to choose to support 500-1000 concurrent SSL VPN users?
- What's right for me? Fortinet or Citrix?
- What is the difference between "data protection in transit" vs "data protection at rest"?
- What are the best practices to prevent a Brute Force attack via remote access?
- When evaluating SSL VPN, what aspect do you think is the most important to look for?
- What is the best appliance for SSL VPN and a fat client?
- What tools do you use to make a remote work more efficient?
- Which offers a better VPN: Meraki or Azure?