Cisco Duo vs. Symantec VIP

Cisco Duois is well suited in all kinds of scenarios where you need to ensure proper security measurements, I think. We can't just rely on our passwords only, as they can be easily stolen through phishing or data breaches thus keeping multi factor authentication is quite essential. I always prefer MFA or at least 2FA for any critical system.

Incentivized

Symantec VIP is well suited for enterprise institutions, like our own, managing a wide range of devices and wanting to provide their users with an extra layer of security. Being able to have 2-factor authentication with a unique pin was key for us and this would be well suited for any organization that holds sensitive information like, in our case, student records. They have great support and getting issues resolved does not take much time, a quick call to support usually straightens issues out.

Incentivized

• Speed - it's fast with almost no delay between triggering the MFA request and receiving the notification on an iPhone
• Security - in addition to the added MFA layer, a simple, 4-digit passcode can be added to the authentication request
• Ease of use - it doesn't scare users. It's simple to install, configure, and use.

Incentivized

• VIP access manager is great at setting up multiple tokens for the same user.
• VIP access manager is great at managing multiple users simultaneously.
• VIP access manager can be accessed from the web, the browser-based interface makes it easy to connect.

Incentivized

• Documentation is oftentimes missing key information for proper implementation. This is circumvented by reading third-party guides or contacting support for additional details.
• They do not push Fail-Closed as much as I think they should. Fail-Open is fairly trivial to bypass and it should be made known to the customer during setup how much this will affect overall security.
• More vendor integration is something that is always craved by administrators. There are so many third-parties to integrate with.

Incentivized

• Reliability on the app. Most users dislike having the authentication app on their cell phone because if they don't have their cellular device on-hand then they're unable to authenticate.
• Perhaps a bio-metric enhancement in the near future would take this application to the next level.

Incentivized

There are a lot of competing solutions on the market; however, Duo "just works", and there is little to no learning curve for the new members to be acclimated to it. As long as that continues I see it as the preferred option moving forward

Incentivized

La interfaz es intuitiva y fácil de navegar, lo que permite a los usuarios administrar sus dispositivos y acceder a las políticas sin problemas. La integración con las aplicaciones SSO y SaaS facilita aún más el proceso de acceso, mejorando la experiencia del usuario.

Incentivized

In the last 5+ years we've been using Duo, there may have been 1 outage that impacted us. We do receive periodic notifications of issues but, for the most part, they impact carriers or functionality that we either don't use, or do not care about.

We do not see any degradation of performance of the protected applications. There are occasional lags in receiving the push but no show stooppers.

Since it’s a reputable company, I have received technical support when needed and I trust that if anything else happens I can contact them with any issues. I haven’t experienced bad customer service and I totally feel supported while using this authentication method. No complains so far and the high rating!

Incentivized

Great vendor support, along with a great product solution

Incentivized

There was no in person training but checking the box was the only way I could complete all of the questions.

This was not organized training but the videos that Duo provides to teach you how to install a particular integration are top notch.

Implementation was straight forward and you can isolate different scenarios in order to test new application setup or add to an existing setup. Gui interface is pretty easy to understand and follow. I had no experience with Duo and still manage to easily set up new policies and rules.

Incentivized

Ultimately we ended up going with Cisco Duo because we are a Cisco shop. All of our networking infrastructure, our phones, our wireless environment is Cisco based. It made logical sense to stay with a product that we already have a line of support with. With a smaller support / tech group we depend on outside Cisco support. That support is already here for us, so we stayed with a Cisco product.

Incentivized

Duo is good but Symantec VIP really takes the cake. Both Symantec VIP and Duo Security are used as a two factor application but Symantec VIP also allows you to use physical tokens. Some of our users prefer those over their phones and we can easily leverage Symantec VIP for that.

Incentivized

So far, the only limits we've encountered were tied to our imagination. Duo's strong list of supported integrations is amazing.

• It's one of those things that only costs money in the sense of you have to convince a leadership team to spend money to save money, right? Like a compromise is far more expensive than duo paying for duo. So specifically it's really just about trying to prevent problems. And so while it costs money and we don't have a direct return on investment that we can point out immediately, I would still always advocate for it just because it keeps security. Paying for security is cheaper than getting compromised essentially.

Incentivized

• It was as easy to implement and manage as promised, so that definitely saved us time and frustration.
• It allowed us to improve on our existing PHI and PII security measures.
• Allowing secure access from remote locations, especially smart phones, was a huge plus.

Incentivized