Cisco Identity Services Engine Review
Updated March 13, 2025

Cisco Identity Services Engine Review

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

We use Cisco Identity Services Engine to connect and authenticate all Wifi medical devices and other iOT devices. It passes through DHCP and DNS to make sure we only allow device to connect on specific SSID that it meant to connect. We also use Cisco Identity Services Engine to discover any new devices and allow/disallow based on role of the devices.

Pros

  • Endpoint profiling
  • Endpoint reports with Authenticated and unauthenticated marks
  • Identity groups can align with AD or other Groups if you carefully configure them
  • User Groups Structure setup

Cons

  • I don't think much of it but it would be good to have some intergration with IPAM like solutions and more script support.
  • Reporting could be more customize.
  • Publish report without login?
  • See which devices are running on Active endpoint and which once rejected would bring much clearer picture in your network env.
  • It saves so much time on troubleshooting. You can drill down on endpoint and find out more why/what and how it connected or rejected.
  • SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor and SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (npm)
We really don't have similar product, but we used SolarWinds for some monitoring purpose but since Cisco Identity Services Engine got pretty good reporting/monitoring component. I personally use Cisco Identity Services Engine more often.

Do you think Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) again?

Yes

Cisco DNA Analytics and Assurance, Cisco Prime LAN Management (discontinued), Azure Virtual Desktop
If we are running multiple SSID and variety of devices than no look further Cisco Identity Services Engine is best solution for auth. and compliance your network. It can assign policy assignment base on MAC and also assign Identity Group automatically. If you introduce new range of MAC than you need to setup once and it should recognize next time you onboard devices. If are running very static network/wifi setup than I guess not much value to run Cisco Identity Services Engine.

Cisco Security

Being Hospital environment, patient care is important to us and data security is our top priority. we work with many agencies, contractors and external vendors to get our system configured. We need to make sure every endpoint is securely connected and have only access that required. We don't want anyone more access than is required.
Well as mentioned earlier, being Hospital environment, we have patients and their families connected through wireless or dome sorts of devices. we also have thousands clinical devices IOT to make sure they only connect to selected network and have limited access. which cisco ise provide for us
i guess UI is much better. Cisco always have more features than competitors.
It's for primary for mac base endpoint detection and automation. So device only get profiles it matches and just enough access to network is required. Off course you can also see the rejected devices and manually add to the profiles.
I would say it will be big impact on implementation. Right module of AI with trained/mature algorithm can help suggest optimisation and find any misconfiguration.

other things, it can provide automation capabilities.
We don't use predicative threat at cisco level but we have other security systems than scan for any threats.
Sometimes AI get false positive . it requires bit of training and configuration to make sure it fit for purpose.

Resilience and Reliability

I think resilience is base of cyber security. How much system can defend attacks and how pro active it secure the network. it worth every penny
Zero trust..
Leaders should encourage Zero Trust approach and have more transparency on what's being connected to where? It is also educational and training for any department.
If i have all the budget i would definitely go for the best.
i was part of the projects but joined in middle stage. So not really comment on this.
It's really one of configuration. if uou get it right for your organisation, you only need good documentation to scale out your settings and config.
I haven't integrated other but planning to add DNAC soon
  • Automation profile
  • End point detection and add to profile
  • Access switch config from single pan of glass

Using Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

9 - Mostly Network and architecture team use
3 - Senior Engineers support system.
  • MAC detection
  • Identify management across network
  • Easy case to deploy vlan
  • integrated with some clinical applications?

Evaluating Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) and Competitors

  • Scalability
  • Ease of Use
More likely one of the engineer experienced this product and choose to go with it
Depending on budget constraint. But it's hard to change once it implements.

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Implementation

  • Don't know
Yes - i joined in middle stage where design was done and testing started.
Wr gave proof of concept first and start implementing
Change management was minimal
  • design and configuration.

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Training

Configuring Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

It's highly customised.
lots of different modules than it can touch on. but it depends on what you after and align with your organisation vision.
Don't think one size fits all. Start small and testing. Small addition and documentation very important.
No - we have not done any customization to the interface
No - we have not done any custom code
Nothing different than what everyone know. Log reports and service desk link

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Support

we have in house support. we do occasionally contact support for other things.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Knowledgeable team
Support cares about my success
Problems left unsolved
Escalation required
Difficult to get immediate help
Slow Initial Response
No it's expensive.
well i personally never had to contact but my colleagues had update issues on ISE that was resolved within 2 days

Using Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

it's really intuitive and easy to follow. once you know the basic it's not that hard.
ProsCons
Like to use
Easy to use
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Unnecessarily complex
Cumbersome
Lots to learn
  • Lan automation
  • Discovery
  • Profile setup
  • 360 report bit messy
  • Logs can be more interactive
Yes, but I don't use it

Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) Reliability

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 .
yes it does. depending on where you coming from. Logs are pretty busy same as report. it also depending on devices count and design.

Integrating Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

  • none may be ,DNAC
  • None
  • Single Signon
we do have SSO azure
Only integrated as required. it will slow down the server.

Relationship with Cisco

i was not part of the vendor selection process l.
once contact signed , we had 3 months to implement. it was quite informative and formal process.
I think mainly two important things,
Documentation and informal training/hand over specialy after implementation.
Be up front and clear on your scope. it does help vendor to design the product and implement as per criteria. saves lots of hassle after implementation.

Upgrading Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

  • User interface
  • Report and alerts.
  • Bit of integration
  • Iron out some of the UI lag
  • Logs and reports format

Comments

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