Cisco Secure Connect

Score9.3 out of 10

58 Reviews and Ratings

What is Cisco Secure Connect?

Cisco Secure Connect is a SASE solution that converges Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) and Security Service Edge (SSE) to enable operational consistency across premises to the cloud.

Categories & Use Cases

#1 most frequent

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

17.6%

6 installations of 34

“Cisco Secure Connect is providing a strong ROI because it reduces infrastructure cists, improved IT tasks, enhances security which is very beneficial for long term businesses.”
— Software Engineer, Neosalpha Technologies (51-200 employees)

#2 most frequent

Manufacturing

17.6%

6 installations of 34

#3 most frequent

Health Care and Social Assistance

14.7%

5 installations of 34

Khushali Jain View profile

Software Engineer in Engineering at Neosalpha Technologies (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I am Cisco Secure Connect cloud service for distributed teams, taking secure solutions to protect the organization for remote users.
Majorly it is providing secure internet access and strong VPN connectivity without depending on very high hardware.
From business purpose it addressing the biggest issue for the employees who are working remotely from different locations, it provide a encrypted access to the resource from which it protects the business from cyber threat

Pros

It provides Secure and seamless access to the remote users. It is easy for them to use the resources efficiently or securely with the strong VPN connection.
Cisco Secure Connect is providing everything in a single tool. It means, instead of managing firewall, VPN, DNS from separate tools, we can manage everything in one platform using Cisco Secure Connect.
Without need of setting up any physical hardware or critical configurations, branch offices can onboard themselves easily which makes the deployment fast and easy.
A company having different branch locations can follow the similar security rules like web filtering, threat protection, access policies across all sites using Meraki SD-WAN integration.

Cons

For teams which are growing, it is very costly to purchase the capabilities that protects the business and even identifying the right subscription like advance threat protection.
The one who does not have any advance or high level Cisco Secure Connect experience, for them it is hard to use the Cisco Secure Connect UI. So, you should make the UI quite extra user friendly.
Finding the root cause is very tricky for large datasets.
Third party integrations are also not that easy with Cisco.

Return on Investment

The positive impact is that businesses has reduced the dependency on physical hardware by moving and adapting its cloud services and on-prem security.
Due to the centralized management, it is easy for developer like us to manage the dashboard and also reduces the time spent on security task and routine networks.
Cisco Secure Connect is providing a strong ROI because it reduces infrastructure cists, improved IT tasks, enhances security which is very beneficial for long term businesses.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Zscaler B2B and Fortinet Secure SD-WAN

Other Software Used

Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Okta, Splunk Cloud Platform

Karanveer singh View profile

Software Engineer in Information Technology at IBM India (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In my organization, we use this Cisco Secure Connect for secure remote access and connectivity for employees. From my perspective it has been become a key tool that allows me to work from anywhere without comprising security. The big issue it helps with the visibility and control. From IT perspective, there is a clear view of who is connecting from where and to what resources.

Pros

One thing it does well is making remote connectivity feel almost invisible
It enforces the security policies very well without interrupting the users.
As on enterprise level it provides IT teams a clear, centralized view of what activity is going on.

Cons

Actually the end user experience is very smooth, getting everything set up on the backend is not straightforward, it can be improve via better guided configurations for common use cases, better error messages.
Team face issues in troubleshooting it can be improve in easy troubleshooting, plain language for error messages.

Return on Investment

It really reduced the security risk, people use to connect from unmanaged devices or unsecure networks, this increase the risk of breaches.
It helps avoid costly investments in the on premise.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Zscaler Zero Trust for Branch and Cloud and FortiClient

Other Software Used

IntelliJ IDEA, Microsoft Teams, Webex Meetings

Verified User

Employee in Sales (10,001+ employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use it for my own lab testing. Along with that, I use it for the demonstration capabilities. Basically, I try to talk with the partners on a daily basis, where they want to understand the product. I leverage this platform in order to help them understand what this product is about, how they can leverage the features, and the benefits of this product.

Pros

I think it integrates very well with Meraki, and that's the best thing I like about this product. Meraki is all about simplicity, and when a customer has the same user interface to get their network and security experience just right out of the Meraki dashboard, it really works. Very great. For example, if you want to secure the internet user, you want to use any, sorry, you want to secure any application, you want to secure any brand, it's just a matter of minutes. You can do it.

Cons

I think it's a very hard question or a tricky question to answer right now. Some capabilities are handled by the Umbrella at the backend. So basically it's not that bad. What we do is if we want to enable some of the capabilities, sometimes it actually does a close launch to a different route. So if we can have more and more features to be integrated right out of the Meraki dashboard, that is the only improvement that I see. Other than that, this product is really, really good.

Return on Investment

I think negative. I can't see anything. I think, on the positive side, now I have one platform to manage network and security.

Verified User

Analyst in Social Media (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Virtual meetings for hybrid work

Pros

Video to see remote team members faces
Connection to share screens with team members
Dial in from a conference rool

Cons

Something learning the Cisco Secure Connect technology is hard
Sometimes Cisco Secure Connect won’t connect fast
Sometimes it’s hard to knows who’s dialed in if their camera is off

Return on Investment

If I can tell who’s present with cameras off information could be missed
Early to stay in touch remotely
Great to make conference rooms collaborative

Usability

Verified User

Team Lead in Professional Services (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We are a system integrator and we propose Cisco Secure Connect to our customers, not all the customers fit this solution, the best cases are for those company which has several sites around the world and require a central control of security policies for the traffic between a private dc and the branches or to manage the security policies for those mobile users or hybrid users that a day are in the office and another are working from home. This solution provides a central management of user Web filtering in context like home or office, remote access, SD-WAN control of the sites and resilience in the cloud, optimize the traffic by enabling the remote access from the Cisco Secure Connect pops around the world hence users can get access to the applications from the closer available point of access

Pros

Central management and visibility
Remote Access for users around the world
Optimized access from the branches around the world with a step up from the sd-wan technologu
Security upgrade

Cons

Integration with ISE
Increase the presence of the Cisco Secure Connect PoPs
increase the available bandwidth per tunnel
Presence or Deal with ISP Partners in China

Return on Investment

Increase of simplicity with the management of policies and configuration
More control on the Lan and Wan
increase of performance

Usability

Other Software Used

Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points, Cisco Meraki MS, Cisco Meraki SD-WAN

Zscaler Internet Access

Cisco Secure Connect

What is Cisco Secure Connect?

Categories & Use Cases

Most Frequent Users

Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services

Manufacturing

Health Care and Social Assistance