The 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
SolarWinds Threat Monitor
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
SolarWinds Threat Monitor empowers MSSPs of all sizes by reducing the complexity and cost of threat detection, response, and reporting. You get an all-in-one security operations center (SOC) that is unified, scalable, and affordable.
Overall, management is not terrible if you have a stable network that is not overly complex. If you don't, this product will take considerable time to plan for an effective solution. I will say support is not very helpful, so if you need assistance after the initial sales rep assisted setup, good luck and be prepared to spend hours on the phone.
Due to the high price that SolarWinds has, I do not recommend it for small companies. And if I recommend SolarWinds in large companies with complex infrastructures where constant monitoring and review of the network is required, this system is very complete and helps everyone in the technology team, both network administrators, database administrators, Security Administrators, and Server Administrators are all very happy with this system.
Manage high-privilege access to communications equipment. It allows to be granular in the permissions, to have it integrated with the LDAP users and, most importantly, to audit what tasks each user performed.
Profile users and devices and assign privileges and access levels based on that combination. It greatly improves the user experience, since it does not depend on the network it is in, but on the access levels it has depending on the device. It also allows self-managed guest access with approval flow, which is essential for our business.
It has also allowed us to automate actions based on findings from StealWatch, Umbrella, AMP, etc.
I guess the user experience itself, it's sometimes a little bit slow, but this is also dependent on the platform and the scale of the deployment of course. But actually functionality-wise it's really, really good. But yeah, it could sometimes be a little quicker to react on the good front.
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.
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.
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.
SolarWinds offers live chat support for all its products built-in. So if you are working on something you can just reach out to someone at that time, and usually get an answer pretty quick. If you are trying to get something done it's a lot better than submitting a ticket and waiting for the email response.
I did participate in the implementation of Cisco ISE and while there were times when it was confusing and we had a lot of trial and error, overall the experience was fine.
So the security team selected Forescout because of its inventory functionality. We have had to utilize Cisco ISE though to actually push the SGT Policies as well as the SGACL mappings and the SXP Propagation across the switch infrastructure. There is a lot more configuration that has to happen in Forescout in order for it to manage the switches.
Threat Monitor is very new on the scene. Its obviously not at the same level as some of the established vendors yet. We also deploy Alienvault for example and its nowhere near the same level as this, however the cost model between these two products reflects that. Alienvault however does have a physical footprint on the environment, whereas Threat Monitor doesnt. If you have the paitence to wait, Threat Monitor will surely only improve over time.
Cisco ISE is fairly expensive, but I feel that the time it saves our team is well worth it.
We have been able to roll this our to all of our teams, and they can each manage their own device and it is really convenient to have each team mange their own devices
Once it is deployed and configured, it seems like there isn't much upkeep, so we don't have to hire someone to manage it we do it by committee.
The positive impact that this system has on our company is that it has saved us a lot of expenses when it comes to investigating what the bank's network and systems are.
This saving translates into administrators' time when it comes to finding the problem quickly, expeditiously, and effectively.
It has helped us a lot and we have even required fewer hours from external providers when it comes to solving a problem.
