Cisco Duo - Essentials Edition

My current use cases for Cisco Duo  involve a pool of clients where most of our clients use Cisco Duo  for MFA to access their online environments, whether it be a VPN connection back to their office or to Azure , where they usually have Cisco Duo protection on it. In our own environment, we also use Cisco Duo to access our company resources through a portal that is protected by Cisco Duo.

I am using the MFA component of Cisco Duo, which I think is the main component, along with all the granular functionalities such as bypass codes. We sync to Active Directory, and we utilize Geo-fencing when our clients are traveling, allowing us to lift the Geo-fencing off a certain account to grant them access. We do not really use the reporting features very much, only when we are troubleshooting to see why someone is unable to access their resources.

What I appreciate the most about Cisco Duo is the advanced license, which incorporates regional security such as Geo-fencing, and I think that is quite valuable to have included. The bypass codes are also very useful from an administration point of view.

I think the integration of identity security into Cisco Duo's IAM  solution is highly beneficial against modern threats, as it is integrated with many technologies and service providers to cover MFA, and it is quick and easy to set up.

I saw the benefits of Cisco Duo immediately after deployment; we started seeing spoofing attempts where the MFA request was not approved because the user was unaware of someone logging in. Clients I implemented Cisco Duo at immediately feel more confident in their security environment, and we can see a lot of illegal attempts to get in, giving me faith in the product.

One downside of Cisco Duo is the expense, as there are clients that can afford only the basic package, which does not include Geo-fencing, leaving them unable to pay for the more expensive level, which I do not feel justifies the double price of that upper tier version. That is about the only thing I would change, otherwise, it is a wonderful product, and I have interacted with their support quite often with no issues.

I have been using Cisco Duo in my career overall for about three years.

I have never seen any lagging, crashing, or downtime with Cisco Duo; I can definitely say we have not had any Cisco Duo outages across all the companies I have worked for that utilize Cisco Duo.

Cisco Duo is very scalable; with just a few clicks in the admin portal, I can add new portals and systems to cover with authentication, and it is almost too easy.

I have contacted Cisco technical support a few times regarding technical matters, including transferring a client from their portal to our company portal, which was resolved almost instantly. I also got assistance for a trial license request from a client considering the more expensive license.

I would give Cisco Duo's support a nine out of ten, as there was one instance where I had to wait a bit to receive assistance, but that was just that one time.

I have used WatchGuard AuthPoint , the WatchGuard variation of an MFA product that is similar to Cisco Duo.

I definitely prefer Cisco Duo for the ease of configuration and how simple it is to use, while the WatchGuard counterpart is extremely difficult and technical to configure and set up.

The initial deployment of Cisco Duo was difficult because I had never used it before, and I had to set up a Cisco Duo AuthProxy server in a complicated environment. However, I reached out to Cisco Duo support, and their online documentation was of great help, so I managed to get it up and running, but it was not easy.

The first full setup of Cisco Duo took me about an entire afternoon, mainly due to configuring the AuthProxy component, and that was only after joining a company for about two weeks, which contributed to the learning curve. Cisco Duo, including the AuthProxy and the online portal portion, probably took two hours.

Cisco Duo does not require maintenance on my end if set up correctly; linking it to Active Directory or something similar means no regular maintenance is needed. We only need to generate bypass codes when users struggle or when we adjust profiles for clients traveling.

I have not utilized the end-to-end phishing resistance feature of Cisco Duo to its full extent.

I have noticed an increase in attempts to access resources illegitimately in my organization; we have two MFA products, Cisco Duo and WatchGuard, and in the logs, we see a lot of attempts. I do not know if that is an uptick in attempts, but there are definitely a lot of attempts going about.

I give this review a rating of ten out of ten.

My main use case for Cisco Duo  is implementing two-factor authentication on users. I use Cisco Duo  for two-factor authentication by enforcing it on users. Additionally, I am enabling posture assessment and health check on the device before allowing access to my organization, which adds extra security and ensures that I have implemented zero trust and separation of duties.

Cisco Duo Push is one of the magic features and it really helped to accelerate the two-factor authentication process. Duo Push makes things easier for my team and users by accelerating two-factor authentication.

Besides Duo Push, Cisco Duo as a cloud service allows for single sign-on on cloud services and supports integration with unlimited applications, which is really helpful for any organization.

Cisco Duo has positively impacted my organization by helping to implement zero trust. It also ensures that every user is protected against phishing or password theft.

I have noticed specific outcomes since using Cisco Duo, as it has reduced security incidents according to my records and reports for a year.

Cisco Duo can be improved by allowing a specific support engineer, which would be helpful for many organizations. I need better support for Cisco Duo.

I have been using Cisco Duo for four years.

Cisco Duo is stable.

Cisco Duo's scalability is fantastic as a cloud service; it is always up 24/7, which is a really good feature. I switched from Fortinet to Cisco Duo because of scalability, as Cisco Duo excels in this area.

Cisco Duo's customer support needs improvement.

I previously used a different solution for two-factor authentication from Fortinet.

I have seen a return on investment, and I can share relevant metrics with savings in money. Cisco Duo has helped my organization in reducing overall authentication-related costs, with an estimated savings of about half of authentications.

My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing reveals that one of the most powerful features is the licensing model and the price. According to the pricing, it is really fantastic to get this value compared with other vendors.

Before choosing Cisco Duo, I evaluated other options such as FortiAuthenticator .

My advice to others looking into using Cisco Duo is that it is really helpful for implementing zero trust and enforcing two-factor authentication for many users. Additionally, the licensing model is one of the best features; you can purchase licenses only for the number of users you have, whether it is 50 or 20.

Regardless, the web service will be available without needing to worry about upgrades or maintenance. I evaluate the integration of comprehensive identity security into Cisco Duo's IAM  solution as effective in defending against modern threats. I give this product a rating of 10.

One year ago, I deployed Cisco Duo  for one of my clients at my previous company because we are a Cisco Gold Partner company. My client wanted to deploy Cisco Duo  on their remote access VPN. They have a Cisco FTD firewall, and mostly users join on weekends through Cisco AnyConnect. My client requested 2FA for these users, so I deployed the solution.

A few months ago, I worked on Upwork where one of my clients approached me and asked if I could install Cisco Duo for their small cybersecurity company. This presented a good opportunity for me because I am in Pakistan, and my client is in the USA.

Cisco Duo is a simple and effective tool that gives detailed information about users who connect to your domain. You can review the logs, including the public IP that the user uses, which country the user is in, and the city where the user is located. Everything is perfect in the logs. One tab shows that a user, for example Hasnain, is connected through remote access VPN and is using a specific public IP from a particular city in a specific country.

Cisco Duo offers a great logging solution in a Cisco environment. Additionally, Cisco Duo integrates easily with single sign-on apps, and I have used it on the Cisco ISE  side because you can add the Cisco Duo address to your ISE and create the same user in both Cisco Duo and Cisco ISE . This makes it easy to manage, as Cisco ISE directly sends requests to Cisco Duo to verify, and the user logs in with a push notification or SMS code.

I am using many features in Cisco Duo, including logging in to Cisco ISE, sending requests when I log in to Cisco FTD through Cisco Duo, and checking 2FA on Cisco AnyConnect. Additionally, I have installed Cisco Duo app on my Windows-based machine, which checks for 2FA notifications every time I reboot the system or press Windows + L. This sends notifications to the cloud to check the username, and it also provides features that ensure the Windows Firewall is always enabled and verify that sensitive data partitions are encrypted. Moreover, it checks that antivirus is properly installed on the system. I also integrate my app within my company and have implemented single sign-on services through Cisco Duo, which is outstanding.

Cisco Duo could improve by considering feedback on features or requests for future releases.

When I worked on Cisco Duo, I encountered a limitation that I want to discuss. When a user logs in on a Windows machine using a Microsoft account, it is easy because you install the installer on your system and generate a code to enroll in Cisco Duo app. However, when I installed the package on the system, the user who was already added on Cisco Duo mobile app faced an issue. When I restarted the system, the screen turned black, and the user got stuck because we could not enter the username and password. After reading Cisco documentation, I learned that they do not support Hotmail addresses. This caused a problem since the user was using a Hotmail account. My client was very understanding about it, but I felt I failed to deploy Cisco Duo effectively. There are limitations because Cisco Duo does not support Hotmail accounts, which many people use to log in to their systems.

The two main limitations on Cisco Duo are first, the requirement to install the installer on my server, and second, that Cisco does not support Hotmail accounts. I regret this limitation due to Cisco not supporting Microsoft accounts.

I have been using Cisco Duo in my career for one year.

Cisco Duo provides scalability and smooth integration with some applications.

I have contacted Cisco customer support, which is highly remarkable. I open cases with Cisco regularly, and they provide prompt support for any case. Although I did not open any cases on Cisco Duo specifically, I have worked with many Cisco devices in my current network. Cisco support is notably above average; few companies match Cisco's technical and customer support capabilities when you are stuck on technical or pricing issues.

Regarding the pricing for Cisco Duo, I find that Cisco is always costly. In my current network, I work in a financial institute where we use 2FA for Fortinet, which is easy to deploy but not scalable. Implementing Cisco Duo is more complicated, but when you integrate the solution fully, Cisco provides a very comfortable experience. The pricing comparison shows a great margin as Cisco is costly, while Fortinet is less expensive.

I use Fortinet, which you can ask me about as an alternative two-factor authentication solution.

If you have any questions, you can ask me. I give this review a rating of 8.5 out of 10.