Ivanti Connect Secure vs. SoftEther VPN

Pulse SDP is well suited in an environment where the majority of employees are working remotely or have extensive business travel. In today's environment where cybersecurity is of the utmost importance for all organizations, Pulse SDP provides a solid level of security for those remote employees or those traveling.

Incentivized

SoftEther VPN works easily, and extremely well through Azure, client-to-server, and in Layer 3 bridge mode between offices but it is not so easy to use from mobile devices, although we have had success, albeit with difficulty in the configuration.

Incentivized

• Reliable links.
• Efficient connection timeouts.

Incentivized

• It just works—I have never had a single call from a client or end-user complaining that their VPN wasn't working.
• It can be configured to be super easy for end-users to use—Nearly transparent to them, in fact.
• It is very lightweight on devices and works extremely fast. So fast, in fact, that about the only issue I ever have with SoftEther VPN are related to users sometimes forgetting they are working remotely.

Incentivized

• The central management tool is not mature.
• The option to connect before logging in using Network Connect is EOL, and the alternative is not good enough currently (requires machine authentication).

Incentivized

• We have has some issues where their default port won't connect through an AT&T wireless AP, but creating an exception for it on the AP or changing the port always gets it working.

Incentivized

At Adecco, first and foremost, we have Pulse SDP easy to use for our employees. This is a critical factor for us because employees are spending much less time calling into support than engaged in high payoff activities. However, when I have called in for support, Pulse SDP has been responsive and effective.

Incentivized

The F5 product was more complicated to manage and requires more time to get used to. Juniper VPN is simpler. F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager may be better if you need other side solutions like load balancing and GSLB. So, it really depends on your requirements.

Incentivized

I had experienced several reliability issues soon after Pertino VPN-as-a-Service was acquired by Cradlepoint where the service would go down for a supposed update but would be down for long periods. And that was just one of several issues that caused me grief. I started looking around for a suitable replacement and came across SoftEther VPN, a project by the University of Tsukuba, Japan, quite by accident. I fell in love with its ease of implementation, low device cost, ease of Admin control, and ease of use for end-users, in addition to its near-zero downtime reliability, and the fact that I have total control over its operation and maintenance.

Incentivized

• Potential to implement tight controls on third party risk.
• Reliable remote access.

Incentivized

• I went from a Pertino/Cradlepoint VPN-as-a-Service requiring no hardware to a SoftEther VPN Client/Server configuration and that required the purchase of a tiny server to run SEVPN. It could have been a Linux box or Windows and I chose Windows, so there was a minimal cost for the Windows 10 device but it eliminated the monthly service cost and has historically been far more reliable.
• We went from about $12/user/month on Cradlepoint perimeter81 to $0/user/month after about a $500 investment in hardware, so just one of my clients has been saving $300/month after the initial $500 for the "Server" device.

Incentivized