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Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) vs. HPE Zerto Software

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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

    HPE Zerto Software

    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    HPE Zerto Software aims to enable customers to run an always-on business by simplifying the protection, recovery, and mobility of on-premises and cloud applications.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)HPE Zerto Software
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)HPE Zerto Software
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)HPE Zerto Software
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    No answer on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    97%
    Would buy again
    144 Answers
    97%
    Would buy again
    34 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    128 Answers
    91%
    Delivers good value for the price
    30 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    96%
    Happy with the feature set
    142 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    35 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    93%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    99 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    32 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    84%
    Implementation went as expected
    115 Answers
    97%
    Implementation went as expected
    34 Answers
    Features
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)HPE Zerto Software
    Data Center Backup
    Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and HPE Zerto Software
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    HPE Zerto Software
    8.3
    3 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Universal recovery00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Instant recovery00 Ratings8.33 Ratings
    Recovery verification00 Ratings9.33 Ratings
    Business application protection00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
    Multiple backup destinations00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Incremental backup identification00 Ratings8.12 Ratings
    Backup to the cloud00 Ratings7.43 Ratings
    Deduplication and file compression00 Ratings7.73 Ratings
    Snapshots00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Flexible deployment00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
    Management dashboard00 Ratings9.13 Ratings
    Platform support00 Ratings7.03 Ratings
    Retention options00 Ratings9.03 Ratings
    Encryption00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Enterprise Backup
    Comparison of Enterprise Backup features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and HPE Zerto Software
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    HPE Zerto Software
    8.3
    2 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Continuous data protection00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
    Replication00 Ratings8.52 Ratings
    Operational reporting and analytics00 Ratings7.52 Ratings
    Malware protection00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Multi-location capabilities00 Ratings9.52 Ratings
    Ransomware Recovery00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Disaster Recovery
    Comparison of Disaster Recovery features of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and HPE Zerto Software
    Feature
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)
    -
    Ratings
    HPE Zerto Software
    8.3
    3 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Disaster Recovery Planning00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
    Hot Sites00 Ratings8.03 Ratings
    Disaster Recovery Testing00 Ratings9.33 Ratings
    Automated Disaster Recovery00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)HPE Zerto Software
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Arcserve ShadowProtect
    Score6.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    FireMon
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Datto SIRIS
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco IOS Security
    Score9.6 out of 10
    Zerto on IBM Cloud
    Score8.4 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)HPE Zerto Software
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.0
    (146 ratings)
    8.3
    (54 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    Usability
    7.9
    (6 ratings)
    8.0
    (29 ratings)
    Availability
    9.4
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    7.3
    (7 ratings)
    4.0
    (34 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (4 ratings)
    8.0
    (2 ratings)
    Configurability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    8.4
    (2 ratings)
    6.7
    (16 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.2
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    -
    (0 ratings)
    7.7
    (5 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)HPE Zerto Software
    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Zerto is well suited for disaster recovery and virtual machine replication between multiple data centers. DR testing for audit or regulations is much easier with Zerto, great reporting, dashboard etc. It is not well suited for physical server replication for disaster recovery or as a primary backup solution.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • Anyone with a large disk (VMDK) knows the issues of VMware snapshots. Most backup software is a "point in time backup" that uses snapshots. While the backup can be run multiple times per day the stress of the snapshot on the host and storage is eliminated by the continuous protection of Zerto log replication.
    • A client had a the disks on a VM go missing for some reason. We had them "flip the switch" for a real fail over and press the fail over button. The VM on our DR site started to come alive as the VM at the customer site was brought down. When the DR VM was fully up, automatic reverse replication started. The DR machine was available in a few minutes (to take into account different host hardware) for access. One the vm at both sites were in sync, we had the customer again repeat the fail over process and the DR site VM was turned off and the Production site VM was brought back on line. This was a 200 GB VM and the whole process was finished in about 3 hours.
    • Zerto also allows for "Test" fail overs that can be configured on many different functions, such as host, datastore, network and IP usage. Configuring the IPs is crucial to avoid inadvertent site cross contamination of the same VM.
    • Zerto can also retrieve files from any VM disk on the DR site without starting a VM. Very handy for retrieving files or directories.
    • Since Zerto is running continuous log replication, changes on the production VM are nearly instantaneously copied to the DR site. As with any data process, having sufficient bandwidth for "churn" peaks minimizes the delay in updating the DR site.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • Moving a VM from one protection group to another could be simplified.
    • I would like to see an executive-style report of recovery and testing for upper management.
    • The ability to deploy Zerto as a virtual appliance, without the need for a windows server.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    We really like the easy setup of this replication solution, as well as the ease of management. Not to mention, our internal IT Economist determined that the Zerto solution would provide the best ROI out of the competing solutions we analyzed. So far, his calculations have been spot on, and we have saved substantially
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Zerto is very easy to implement and support. Uses are broad, only issues are once something doesn't sync it is difficult to get assistance until your reach tier 2 or tier 3 support. Basic file and folder recovery is great. Live and test fail overs are also easy to implement without issue.
    Incentivized
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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.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    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.
    Incentivized
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Overall support is very good. We sometimes get pushback when asking Level 1 support to escalate to Level 2. This causes undue frustrations when you need a more knowledgeable support person to get involved. We've had to escalate to account reps a few times for this scenario. Zerto is very responsive and normally handles our requests very quickly.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    No answers on this topic
    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    Make sure the end goal is in mind before implementing. That way results meet expectations.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    We started out using Backup Exec which was in service until we virtualized our environment where it didn't perform as well at the time. Then we switched to Veeam which worked well, but then as we started needing to do migrations and off-site DR, we found ourselves relying on Zerto more often.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    For my organization, the pricing model was an upfront investment for the Zerto licenses. My organization prefers to pay upfront and not deal with month-to-month or year-to-year pricing models that most companies are moving to. But for some, the investment may be more than they can afford, and would prefer the year-to-year pricing model.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Cisco
    No answers on this topic
    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    I mean, it was 6 years ago, but we were up and going with all applications synchronizing in short order. The longest tasks was getting the 30 TB of application data synchronized between the datacenters.
    Incentivized
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    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
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    Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
    • Zerto is like having the best possible insurance ... it just works, and often provides the backups taken overnight that are key in recovering data/work between overnight backups.
    • Zerto easily enabled the move of primary datacenters by allowing easy failover to a secondary site, and failback to the primary site.
    Incentivized
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    ScreenShots

    Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Screenshots

    Screenshot of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

    HPE Zerto Software Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshotScreenshot of AnalyticsScreenshot of DashboardScreenshot of Failover TestScreenshot of vSphere