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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. ConnectWise Automate

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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AThe Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) offers a network-based approach for adaptable, trusted access everywhere, based on context. It gives the user intelligent, integrated protection through intent-based policy and compliance solutions.N/A

    ConnectWise Automate

    Score8.4 out of 10
    N/AConnectWise Automate, formerly LabTech, is a remote monitoring and management (RMM) platform. It provides powerful automation to discover and manage devices, monitor for problems, and scripts repetitive action.

    $700

    Pricing
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Agents
    $1.00-$6.00
    per month/per agent
    Implementation Fee
    $700
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    ConnectWise
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    86%
    Would buy again
    18 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    128 Answers
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    19 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    142 Answers
    95%
    Happy with the feature set
    20 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    99 Answers
    85%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    11 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    115 Answers
    73%
    Implementation went as expected
    11 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Application Performance Management
    Comparison of Application Performance Management features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ConnectWise Automate
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    ConnectWise Automate
    8.5
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Virtualization monitoring00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    IT Asset Discovery00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Monitoring Tasks
    Comparison of Monitoring Tasks features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ConnectWise Automate
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    ConnectWise Automate
    7.4
    22 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Remote monitoring00 Ratings10.022 Ratings
    Network device monitoring00 Ratings8.021 Ratings
    Activity Monitoring00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Management Tasks
    Comparison of Management Tasks features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ConnectWise Automate
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    ConnectWise Automate
    7.8
    22 Ratings
    15% above category average
    Patch Management00 Ratings10.021 Ratings
    Policy-based automation00 Ratings9.022 Ratings
    Remote Access
    Comparison of Remote Access features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and ConnectWise Automate
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    ConnectWise Automate
    8.0
    1 Ratings
    13% above category average
    Attended device access00 Ratings10.01 Ratings
    Unattended device access00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Mobile device access00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Virtual device access00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Multiple-display support00 Ratings9.01 Ratings
    Multiple concurrent sessions00 Ratings8.01 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Panda Systems Management
    Score7.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    FireMon
    Score7.9 out of 10
    N-able N-sight RMM
    Score7.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco IOS Security
    Score9.6 out of 10
    No answers on this topic
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (146 ratings)
    10.0
    (59 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    10.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (6 ratings)
    9.0
    (5 ratings)
    Availability
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    3.0
    (4 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (7 ratings)
    7.0
    (14 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    9.0
    (3 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    5.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.2
    (4 ratings)
    7.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)ConnectWise Automate
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    Well suited... I've used it for both wired and wireless access, and it's perfect for that. In addition to enforcing security on the port, you can also lock down east-west traffic. When you get to the point where you're configuring secure group tags and things like that, you can keep people from getting to places they shouldn't. Basically, you could turn your entire network into a firewall if you wanted to. You can secure access based on the identity of any given user through role-based authentication. For example, if you have salespeople and you don't want them accessing your financial or PCI environment, they authenticate as a salesperson and you can completely stop them from getting to any of that. That's really important, especially for us. Our payment card infrastructure servers are heavily locked down. Granted, in our situation, we firewall all that off anyway, but you still don't want some random individual to be able to even attempt that sort of thing. That's what it's really good for. I'm trying to think of a weakness. I don't know. We don't really struggle with it. There's nothing that I use it for where I wish it were better, at least not that I can think of offhand. I'm sure there are things, I just can't think of anything off the top of my head.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    I recommend it to all IT colleagues; regardless of the size of the PCs with which you work most of the time, the application allows connection stability between computers that make it possible to continue working or taking care of the infrastructure from afar.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • manageable scaled administrative access to network devices as needed
    • Great use as a radius server which allows proper authentication and authorization into the network
    • Multiple conditions that can be utilized to grant users access based on their role in the organization
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    • Desktop sharing / view with chat to the operator, file sharing and pass-through for keyboard strokes
    • Computer/server monitoring with thresholds and warning
    • Search - tracking down computers when you have many by name, logged in user, IP
    • End user ticket raising is built into the tray icon which make access really easy
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Trustsec needs more documentation and configuration best practice examples
    • The licensing model can be difficult to explain and understand for customers
    • Difficult to get an accurate benchmark to know exactly how many Cisco Identity Services Engine nodes and the size of the deployment should be
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    • They have conflicting scheduling paradigms. When scheduling patching for clients, the 1st Friday is interpreted as the very first Friday of the month, even if this is the 1st of the month. For scripting, the 1st Friday of the month is interpreted as the 1st Friday of the 1st FULL WEEK of the month. This makes no sense to have two different interpretations, and makes it unreliable to schedule recurring scripts to fall when recurring maintenance does. The scripts need to be done manually because of this.
    • There is no way to dictate reboot orders for patch policies. This tied directly in with my first point. We have some clients that require reboot orders. This is not possible without having different patch policies for each server and specifying a time this way. But, there aren't small enough increments of time to make this reliable, plus patching duration might vary. Excluding reboots with patching and scheduling reboot scripts fixes this. However, this can't be done once on a recurring schedule due to the different scheduling paradigms already discussed. We have to schedule these manually each month.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    We are so very reliant on Cisco Identity Services Engine at this point that finding another solution would be a big hassle for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    The primary reason for this rating is that ConnectWise Automate is currently so integral to our operations that moving away would involve more man hours than we would realistically have to invest. However, ConnectWise Automate is also completely capable of meeting all of our business needs and customizable to the point where if something is not meeting those needs out of the box, it can be modified to do what we want. From only installing software on machines if a different software package exists, to push a new version of that software is available, to check if credentials for user/machine have been updated to our new standards and then updating them if they have not, ConnectWise Automate is capable of doing everything we ask of it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Cisco
    For us the solution is very easily useable on its own. Perhaps that has to do because we started using ISE in the 1.2 days and have seen it grow during the years. Policy creation, etc. is all very visible and thus easy to use. Deployment of multiple nodes is also incredibly easy and flexible. You can easily add or remove nodes as you wish.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    Basic use of the product is fairly easy. Information about the machines you manage can be found in customizable dashboards, which can be unique for each user, and, therefore, properly suited to the users' needs/job function. This is not a 10 because some of the interfaces are very clunky (Patch Management), and some features are not intuitive and not well documented (reporting). Scripting and Patch Management have a fairly steep learning curve (For structure in patch management and syntax in scripting), but once learned, they work well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    We do have to occasionally reboot the servers when they get low on memory, but we're also a few versions behind. Availability has generally been pretty good though with no major outages in the time that we've had it implemented.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    yes it does. depending on where you coming from. Logs are pretty busy same as report. it also depending on devices count and design.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    It used to be great, but then they broke reporting, speed and responsiveness with version 11 and the new Patch Manager. It's really bad and their support people are way behind on fixing so many bugs. They have really gone downhill. If they don't get it together soon, we'll start looking around.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    Cisco support is second to none, both in terms of how you access support but also the knowledge of the individual support teams. If you focus on one technology and provide "manufacturer support" then you can rest assured that you are accessing Cisco's top individuals. I feel like this is a USP for Cisco support.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    ConnectWise Automate lets you manage more endpoints, with enhanced productivity and improved service, all without increasing expenses. It can manage patches and updates across thousands of computers. We also use it for customized monitoring and alerting on workstations and servers. Monitoring is really robust and granular. It does a great job of gathering a TON of data about the network, and that data is searchable. There are a bunch of different reports built in. Integrates with Manage, Control, and other applications. It does a ton of stuff out of the box, and has endless customization options.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Cisco
    Training can only cover certain areas, there are a lot of areas training just can't cover. You have to learn by doing it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    The Online training has been re-done and needs a lot more work. When you look at training in different roles, it shows a lot of the same topics but no explanation to what is different about them. Several times that topics are the exact same, but they make you re-take the same information for a different topic, instead of marking that you have already completed that portion of training.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    I think our system integrators lacks some competencies and this has led to an implementation that is still perfectible. (i.e. dedicating an interface for intra-cluster communication)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    Start small and learn the in's and out's before making policies and rolling things out company wide. Ask the questions of why if you don't agree with something or your company does things a different way. Usually they are done a certain way for a reason. Start simple with roll out and slowly enable or add on the functionality that is needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    I think all give some visibility of device monitoring and management, but Cisco Identity Services Engine gives a good way to manage more details about the device in a centralized way that gives a wider range of monitoring and control than the other softwares individually. I don't think Cisco Identity Services Engine eliminates the need for these other software as of now, but there is potential for Cisco Identity Services Engine to be able to take over more of these roles.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    I believe the monitoring and alerts in Continuum command is better, but [ConnectWise Automate (formerly LabTech)] does have stronger scripting, and perhaps a better interface. N-Central is inferior on all fronts to both. I did not make the purchasing decision. I would myself likely pick Continuum if I had to make a on the spot choice.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Cisco
    Cisco ISE was competitively priced and Cisco was able to leverage some of our existing contracts to help ease the purchase.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    No answers on this topic
    Scalability
    Cisco
    It's fully customised and comprehensive. only thing is you need to know what you want. Proper research and planning would save lots of time and effort .
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • I don't know about negatives because we haven't seen it right now, but positive impact is one is the roadmap we have. And now since we are going ahead with doing the deployment of Cisco ISE, we see that we are getting closure to, so at the end of the day, we have to make sure that operationally we stay excellent. So that's where operational excellence comes in. Cisco ISE is basically addressing that for us. Right now we are in a situation if there is a WIFI issue or if there is an authentication issue, it gets really difficult to isolate the problem. But with Cisco ISE , this functionality is going to come in. So we believe that it would be a good ROI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ConnectWise
    • We found we were able to provide good monitoring of our customers sites which was an objective. However, that came at a significant time investment that never seemed to be finished.
    • We were able to negotiate a price that worked for us for an up-front purchase which was nice.
    • We found the pricing to be very competitive.
    • Bottom line for us was despite the pros of the product, we found other RMM solutions to be a better overall "value" due to not having to dedicate technicians to maintaining the product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

    ConnectWise Automate Screenshots

    Screenshot of Monitor: Find problemsProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot