Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. Symantec Advanced Threat Protection

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
Score 8.8 out of 10
N/A
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
Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Symantec Advanced Threat Protection is a single unified solution that uncovers, prioritizes, and remediates advanced attacks. The product fuses intelligence from endpoint, network, and email control points, as well as Symantec’s massive global sensor network, to stop threats that evade individual security products. It leverages existing Symantec Endpoint Protection and Symantec Email Security.cloud investments, so it does not require the deployment of any new agents. It includes functionality…N/A
Pricing
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Free Trial
NoNo
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)Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Top Pros
Top Cons
Best Alternatives
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Small Businesses
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.2 out of 10
NinjaOne
NinjaOne
Score 9.2 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Nmap
Nmap
Score 8.8 out of 10
Nmap
Nmap
Score 8.8 out of 10
Enterprises
Nmap
Nmap
Score 8.8 out of 10
Nmap
Nmap
Score 8.8 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(39 ratings)
6.7
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(3 ratings)
7.0
(2 ratings)
Availability
7.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
7.0
(6 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)Symantec Advanced Threat Protection
Likelihood to Recommend
Cisco
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.
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Broadcom
It is valuable software for when it comes to a large or medium organization, since it helps to protect the endpoints, but as the number of servers increases its value increases. However, it is important to keep in mind that when it comes to low end devices, its protection can affect their performance. This is because it is not a software with a very light agent.
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Pros
Cisco
  • 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.
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Broadcom
  • The incident management piece is the heart and soul of the product. A single area where all data in relation to network and email protection is available.
  • Works well in conjunction with the standard Symantec Endpoint product.
  • URL Protection is advanced and very helpful
  • Technical support is great and definitely the best I have ever seen for a "anti-virus" type product.
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Cons
Cisco
  • 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.
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Broadcom
  • I don't like that I have to maintain the client and keep it up to date. Updating the client is not a very easy process.
  • Deploying the client could be easier. They have a deployment tool, but it doesn't really get to all PCs, which means I still have to manually deploy it.
  • Because the product has so much customization, it can also be very difficult to set up and understand.
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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.
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Broadcom
Symantec Advanced Threat Protection has done a sufficient job at identifying true positives. However, the UI could be improved and the amount of false positives is a little too frequent for my liking
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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.
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Broadcom
There is a small learning curve, but compared to other AV products it is fairly simple and easy to catch onto
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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.
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Performance
Cisco
ISE performance has never been an issue for us. The system doesn't tend to slow down at all.
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
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.
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Broadcom
Support responds fast for higher priority issues, they have always been good at solving the problems we encounter.
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Implementation Rating
Cisco
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.
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Broadcom
No, besides to review documentation prior to beginning. That is what helped lead to a smooth implementation
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Alternatives Considered
Cisco
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.
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Broadcom
Frankly, the other products were too expensive to make the change from Symantec so we continued with the tried and true protection. We don't have the funding to move to a more expensive product and the manpower that it would take to implement a new solution.
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Scalability
Cisco
Yes, we have the ability to scale ISE to however many nodes and clusters we want, but of course this takes time and money for licenses.
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Broadcom
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Cisco
  • 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.
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Broadcom
  • Some digital assets were lost due to failures to detect various threats.
  • We had to use other products in combination in order to trust that all threats were actually detected, taking extra time. We couldn't use just SATP.
  • Ability to quickly manage/deploy via AD made maintenance of the application itself quick and easy.
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