SolarWinds Access Rights Manager (ARM) vs. Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE)

Overall, Solar Winds Access Rights Manager (ARM) is reliable and easy to use once you figure out how to get what you want from the tool. They have both a client and web version of the tool that can be used. Each one has different functionality so just have to remember where to go to do the task you want. We are still early in our usage, but so far it seems to be working well!

Incentivized

Cisco ISE integrates will with a Cisco solution such as firewalls, network switches and routers. It does an incredible job of granting access based on the role that an individual or groups have, and the ability to remove access to that individual or group is also east. In our environment ISE is used to authenticate external users that have access by vpn, and also to manage access to the large network infrastructure

Incentivized

• SolarWinds Access Rights Manager is easy to set up and configure. We had the first report generated in a few hours.
• The automated feature for the reports is great. We just set it and forget it and now the reports get emailed on schedule.

Incentivized

• The most beneficial thing that I love about it, there are tons of things that I love about ISE and that it does well, but the most fascinating that I feel about is its integration with DNA center or Catalyst Center using PX Grid as the protocol wherein ISE acts as a policy server for the entire campus hand in hand with Catalyst Center to make sure that the policy policy follows the user and also in the background hand in hand with DNA Center or Catalyst Center makes sure microsegmentation is implemented so that east west traffic is blocked and takes care of the campus.

Incentivized

• Licensing model when we changed over to SolarWinds was [I feel] a nightmare. It needs to be more streamlined and SolarWinds needs to understand what their customers require. When we changed over to SolarWinds we found it very hard to get answers to what modules we were still licensed for.
• Our current system is not functioning. We can't login to the application with the accounts we created that were working. The error that appears doesn't help to resolve it. So at present we just renewed licenses for this year and we can't use the system.

Incentivized

• I guess the user experience itself, it's sometimes a little bit slow, but this is also dependent on the platform and the scale of the deployment of course. But actually functionality-wise it's really, really good. But yeah, it could sometimes be a little quicker to react on the good front.

Incentivized

It is in place and working. No time or money to consider anything else.

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We are so very reliant on Cisco Identity Services Engine at this point that finding another solution would be a big hassle for us.

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End user experience is much better than administration

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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

On occasion the server will need to be restarted to get things running again

Incentivized

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

Satisfactory performance

Incentivized

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

Very slow response times and sometimes I found the solution and ended up sharing it with support

Incentivized

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

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

It was my first exposure to this type of product and I wasn’t given the time to figure out how best to implement it. I would say get a plan together of what you are tying to accomplish first

Incentivized

I did participate in the implementation of Cisco ISE and while there were times when it was confusing and we had a lot of trial and error, overall the experience was fine.

Incentivized

While the CatTools are used mainly by a colleague of mine, DameWare is only used periodically and definitely not on a daily base. We chose ARM (when we bought it, it was called 8Man) because it had a good and well fitting set of features for a reasonable price. In addition to that, we could quite easily configure some features for our needs. Other products didn't get even close to this feature list for this price.

Incentivized

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

No experience with this

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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

• Because it's cut down on the mistakes and time lost creating new user accounts, this has meant there is a reduction in tickets relating to changes needing to be made to user accounts. Whether this was the incorrect spelling of the name, or the need to add/remove security groups. With ARM now doing the user creation along with the templates we've created, this has dramatically cut down the number of support tickets regarding user accounts, meaning our team now has more time to tend to other pending tickets.

Incentivized

• 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