Cisco Identity Services Engine is a reliable NAC that help us hardening our network access, protect our assets, isolate environments and leverage identity management.
Pros
NAC
Radius
Allow us to deploy network security best practices
Cons
Cisco Identity Services Engine is complex and it has some features that goes beyond our regular usage. Sometimes the line between ACS and Cisco Identity Services Engine is blurred.
Likelihood to Recommend
When onboarding a device in the network, we strictly have to authorize its access via Cisco Identity Services Engine. VSAs are a well used attribute as well.
VU
Verified User
Analyst in Information Technology (Oil & Energy company, 1001-5000 employees)
We have a Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) that provides Reporting on and Radius Authentication Connection between AD and Our Cisco AnyConnect VPN. This allows me to report and record our connections (who, where, IP address, username, connection time, etc.) and push logs out to our Alien-vault SEIM with greater detail than the ASA devices would provide otherwise. It also lets us filter by IP address or Physical Address for some of our other channels so that only specific users can use those specific channels as opposed to anyone who can connect to our VPN portal. In essence, the business case is that it allows you greater control over who you allow into your systems and who you allow connecting to other systems in your control lowering the risk that someone will just come across a password and try to log into your VPN or Cisco Systems, that lower chance of compromise at such a high and remotely accessible level leads to lower risk and better stability overall. As a bonus, logging and reporting also help with troubleshooting.
Pros
Logging
Reporting
Access Control
Identification
Conditional Blocking
Cons
GUI Interface Flow
Ease of Use
Automatic Configuration
Likelihood to Recommend
Because if you understand Cisco, once it is set-up it works, practically forever, and there is nothing better than having something that will work forever
