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Cyber Security Specialist at a manufacturing company with 11-50 employees
Real User
Stable, scalable, integrates well with Active Directory, but needs to be more user friendly
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the integration with the Active Directory."
  • "To add more value to this solution it needs to be more user-friendly."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is a single sign-on to gain access to users and servers.

The security from the logistics team has required us to have a single sign-on solution. We implemented several single sign-on servers and we integrated them into one. The users would use it as a jump server. They would connect to it and from there, they would access the main server.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the integration with the Active Directory.

What needs improvement?

To add more value to this solution it needs to be more user-friendly. This is what is really needed in the next release of this product.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two years. My experience with this solution is as an end-user.

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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is fine, we have not had any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable.

We have more than 100 users who are made up of engineers and administrators.

How are customer service and support?

I have not been in touch with technical support.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Previously, I used Arcon as a bridge to build access management. Arcon is different from CA SSO single sign-on.

I changed jobs and in this new location, Arcon was deployed.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was not a problem. I would rate the difficulty a seven out of ten.

We have a large network with several servers and it took more than six months for the initial implementation.

We had a team of three engineers to deploy this solution on-premises. They were responsible for the administration of the single sign-on.

What about the implementation team?

We implemented this solution with the help of one of the partners.

What other advice do I have?

My advice to anybody considering this solution is to always create their use cases so that they can do a complete and thorough POC before purchasing this solution.

Do not force the implementation of these types of solutions. It was forced by the management without proper planning. I have learned that proper planning works best for these types of solutions because you have to integrate with different components of the network, in order to be successful.

I would rate this solution a seven 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.
PeerSpot user
it_user778521 - PeerSpot reviewer
Site Minder Admin at a construction company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
We're able to provide users with efficient, secure login, but there are compatibility issues
Pros and Cons
  • "SAML is the best thing we're using right now because there is no need for creating an external account."
  • "We are finding some compatibility issues. We're still working with CA on them."

What is our primary use case?

What we're doing with Single Sign-On, we're providing security to different applications, like protecting the URLs. The other thing is, we're using SAML. With SAML we are connecting to the external vendor, external partner, and providing the customer a single sign-on to at the second domain.

How has it helped my organization?

It's more efficient. We're providing immense security to the applications, to Chase. We're securing 70 million customers in Chase.

What is most valuable?

I find that SAML is the best thing we're using right now because there is no need for creating the external account. If you take a partner like Disney World, if a Chase customer wants to log in to Disney World, then it is easy for them to log in with the same credentials, whatever we have at Chase. There is no need to make a new account or enter in the same data.

So, the Chase user, if he wants to purchase something on Disney World, tickets for example, he doesn't need to give his details to Disney World. He can use the information with the details, whatever we have, in the Chase DB. We're just, as part of the transaction, sending the details to Disney World and he completes the transaction with the details. So in that case, we're providing security to the user data.

What needs improvement?

We're working on a mobile API gateway. I am really interested to learn more about that.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's stable, but we are finding some compatibility issues. We're still working with CA people. We're trying to improve the enhancements.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is good so far. It is user friendly, so we are not experiencing many complications when using this application.

How is customer service and technical support?

Good support. We work with CA technicians frequently, engineers very frequently. They're very helpful.

Whenever we go to them with an issue, they'll first look at the existing DB. If the same kind of issue happened previously, they'll try to pull that information and provide us the feedback right away. If it is a new issue, they will really work hard to get the issue done, as soon as possible.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
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it_user353775 - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior IT Architect with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It connects us to our vendors, agencies, and our service providers that are within our group of subsidiaries. We'd like to see a new feature to support an openID connection portal.

Valuable Features:

The most valuable feature for us is the configuration feature. It permits us to connect our company to the offices of our subsidiaries. So, when we buy a company we can connect their IT infrastructure to ours.

Improvements to My Organization:

It connects us to our vendors, agencies, and our service providers that are within our group of subsidiaries. If we didn't use it or if we lost service for even two hours, we'd lose 20 million euros.

Room for Improvement:

We'd like to see a new feature to support an openID connection portal. We'd also like for CA to be faster at shipping out new technical environments, such as OSs. They should do an operating system like RHEL, where Red Hat is on top the newest version of Linux. Today, they're slow to support new technology.

Stability Issues:

It's stable.

Scalability Issues:

There have been no issues. The scale is very important for us because we are doing some new applications.

Initial Setup:

It's not user friendly, but it's very customizable. It's important to have customized developments integrated with CA SSO.

Other Advice:

It's expensive. If you're small, it wouldn't be as good a fit, but if you are a big company, then it's a better choice.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user348408 - PeerSpot reviewer
IdAM Engineer with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It does a good job of gathering all transactional data, capturing information for user-initiated transactions. Tuning the policy store is a little complex to ensure it doesn't get corrupted.

Valuable Features

Its flexibility and ease-of-use are the most valuable features.

The objects are tied together well in the administrator UI. It's flexible and easy to use, and the the policy store schema has been structured well.

It provides auditing and secure cookies, as well.

Improvements to My Organization

It provides security and protects end-applications. Auditing is good – it does a really good job of gathering all the transactional data. Anytime a user initiates a transaction, all of the information is captured.

Stability Issues

It is very good. I have been working with the product for a very long time and have had no problems directly related to SiteMinder or its capabilities – only issues with our underlying infrastructure. There were a few things that CA has already addressed.

Scalability Issues

It scales very well. You can scale it horizontally or increase threads or socket configurations within the solutions.

Customer Service and Technical Support

They’re really good. Very knowledgeable. I had a policy store corruption – they were able to help me fairly quickly, in a reasonable time.

Initial Setup

I’ve been doing it for a long time, I can say it's medium-level complexity. The policy store configuration, and tuning the policy store is a bit complex in ensuring it does not corrupt.

Other Advice

It is easy to implement, use, and scale. There is room for improvement as with any product. It’s solely based on what their requirements are, their user population, and their enterprise environment.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
IT Security Consultant at Duroob Technology
Consultant
The Federation feature is customizable and easily integrated with a customer application
Pros and Cons
  • "It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password. Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days."
  • "The most valuable feature is the Federation part of Single Sign On, which is customizable and is easily integrated with any customer application or any third party application."
  • "The Federation part of CA Single Sign On, it's a bit complex to implement because it involves the SSL certificates, exchange of certificates, and lot of technical details. The documentation misses some important parts of this, so that's the reason it took some time for us to go live."

What is our primary use case?

The client has a biometric identification module. We integrated that with the CA Single Sign On for new user registration, and it works perfectly fine for us.

How has it helped my organization?

It has considerably reduced the amount of time that new users would take to join into the organization. Previously, it was a lengthy, manual process because it's a very secure environment, where they need to verify the user before they can actually grant him a user-ID and password.

Integrating with the built-in custom application, and exposing CA Single Sign On to the internet, we were able to get the employees onboard. The time that we gained was: previously it would generally take from four to eight weeks for each employee, we brought it to one to two days.

What is most valuable?

The Federation part of Single Sign On, which is customizable and is easily integrated with any customer application or any third party application.

What needs improvement?

Maybe they could improve on the Federation part, and Federation with the apps. Not only for the websites, but with the apps also.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It's a very stable product.

Once we experienced a crash, the main policy engine of Single Sign On crashed, but CA gave us a fix for that.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability-wise it's good. It's built into the product.

How is customer service and technical support?

The support could improve in its response times, and in the understanding of the customers' problems.

How was the initial setup?

It was complex. The Federation part of CA Single Sign On, it's a bit complex to implement because it involves the SSL certificates, exchange of certificates, and lot of technical details. The documentation misses some important parts of this, so that's the reason it took some time for us to go live.

What other advice do I have?

When we're looking to select a vendor for a product, what's most important for a client like ours is the security; the product should be really secure. The next most important is the stability.

I rate it an eight out of 10 because, once we implemented it and the Federation part was working fine, we haven't faced any problems, except for that one instance where the policy was crashing.

I would definitely suggest going for CA Single Sign On.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
PeerSpot user
it_user354801 - PeerSpot reviewer
Infrastructure Manager at a government with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It is a reliable, complete product
Pros and Cons
  • "It is reliable."
  • "The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect."

What is most valuable?

It is reliable.

What needs improvement?

I do not think there is anything to improve. It is a pretty complete product.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

We are using it as we have implemented it. I have not seen anything that is missing.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

How are customer service and technical support?

The tech support has not been very good for us so we don't use them anymore. We have had some issues. Nobody is perfect.

It was a long time ago, but we stopped using them because of it. It was very long time ago. It might be better now, but it used to not be so good. Now, we solve problems in another way.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We started to use the product before it was CA. It used to be another company's product. CA bought the company a couple of years ago. I do not remember who it was actually.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
umairakhlaque78 - PeerSpot reviewer
umairakhlaque78Sr. Manager at Duroob Technology
Real User

There is not doubt CA site minder /SSO is one a stable product, CA had done this aquisition in 2003. Out of few stable SSO solution . I must put CA on the top. Its easy to customize , reliable & super & secure transactions. CA combine SSO & Fedration to simplifize their licensing. We recently implemented a SSO solution to one of complex env where we had enabled SSO for 10 application and we will contiune. So far no complains . Solution running amazingly .

it_user348447 - PeerSpot reviewer
IT Security Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It provides end users with SSO to our applications – they log in once and they can access all of our applications. A nice addition would be authentication using biometrics.

Valuable Features

It provides good security as a single sign-on tool and is easy to integrate with various applications. Also, the admin UI it provides is very user-friendly.

Improvements to My Organization

It provides end users with SSO to our applications – they log in once and they can access all of our applications. It’s simpler, more secure, and involves less time for the end users, giving them a better experience with us.

Room for Improvement

I'd like to see authentication using biometrics. This would be a nice addition.

Stability Issues

Although the policy server has sometimes spontaneously restarted, it’s mostly good.

Scalability Issues

It’s scalable; you can add new servers and away you go. If we add more users or more load, it’s easy to scale up.

Customer Service and Technical Support

They are very helpful – always there when we need them. We had a problem with their impersonation solution with our application. It was not working with the existing version, so we called them and they determined the right solution was to downgrade.

We also have support tickets for other CA products and they are very responsive – on time and are helpful.

Initial Setup

It was already in production when I joined the company.

Other Advice

It provides a good UI for us, and it provides a good solution for our needs. As a standalone product, it's good.

You should understand the user setup, requirements, how you want to service the users, and their infrastructure. Based on this information, you can find the right solution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user351468 - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Analyst at a insurance company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It provides a level of security that allows us to get on with our work. The initial setup was kind of cumbersome.

What is most valuable?

I really like the robust functionality that this solution offers, such as federation, OAuth, security, and multi-tenancy, just to name a few.

It really helps us and, importantly, it's very easy to use.

How has it helped my organization?

In regards to our organization, it provides a level of security that allows us to get on with our work.

What needs improvement?

The initial setup was kind of cumbersome as the instructions were not great. They should really improve this.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It has had its moments, but we deal with them and it seems to be getting better.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Definitely scalable, no problem here.

How are customer service and technical support?

Mixed, as there are different levels of expertise and so the quality of support not consistent.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Others in my company had done the due diligence because once you’re married to the product you cannot change. But I don’t think CA SSO is the best out there right now.

How was the initial setup?

It was complex and not at all straightforward. They really need to work on this.

What other advice do I have?

Just do your research. This is very important.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Symantec Siteminder Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: October 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Symantec Siteminder Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.