Our main use cases for Cisco Duo are that we use it for all MFA with ISE for all of our service provider devices, all the servers, and related equipment.
External reviews
External reviews are not included in the AWS star rating for the product.
Centralized authentication simplifies logins and saves time
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Duo with ISE features benefit my company by making logins more secure and simpler. Everything is in one box, so we don't have multiple servers or multiple account on those servers for different device types.
What is most valuable?
The feature of Cisco Duo that I prefer the most is centralized authentication for both TACACS and RADIUS.
My ability to decrease time while using Cisco Duo varies. We don't change up people frequently, but one person would take me up to an hour out of my day to onboard or offboard. If we onboard 10 people I could spend my entire day giving access.
What needs improvement?
Possible an integration with ISE where the DUIO proxy and DUO configuration can be done on ISE instead of separate portals.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for five years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Regarding the stability and reliability of the platform, there have been issues. Cisco Duo has their issues, and they are effective about notifications saying they're having login issues or push notification issues; none of it has really affected me. They have backups, and I haven't noticed any issues with them.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Regarding its scalability, I haven't hit any limits yet, and I've got 1,000 users in there with no issues. I just go to my sales partner and request more licenses, and that's it. Since it's a cloud solution, I don't have to worry about it.
How are customer service and support?
I never had a chance to experience anything with their customer service and technical support bsince I never had to reach out to them for anything.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not use or consider other solutions that do the same that Cisco Duo does. We went straight to Duo since we used it in conjunction with ISE.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment of Cisco Duo is very simple. It's not hard at all. You just point your device to it, go into the portal and register, and you're done. There's nothing complex about it.
What was our ROI?
For me, the biggest return on investment when using Cisco Duo is my time. With multiple servers and different types of servers, if someone is onboarded or offboarded or they forget their password, I would have to change it in ten different places or more. Now I don't have to do that; I just do it in one place, and I'm done, so that helps.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with the pricing, the setup costs, and the licensing of the solution is that it's cheap compared to running multiple other servers to do the same job.
What other advice do I have?
There aren't any new features or functionalities in Cisco Duo that my company has started using recently; we use it primarily for the authentication portion. There are other features we can use, yet we haven't turned those options on yet, so that's more a matter of time than anything.
We have many different vendors and types of devices that we require MFA for login. That said, Duo helps bring all of those accounts into one system, in conjunction with ISE, you have one username, one password, and you access all the devices instead of having every device have its own credentials. It lowers the number of passwords you need to have.
Cisco Duo is on the right track for improvement. A lot of their devices already integrate with it now. They keep adding features for more devices that interact natively with it, instead of having to have a third-party server to reach out to Duo.
I would rate Cisco Duo overall about an eight out of ten; it's a strong product.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Ensures secure access for administrative tasks while managing cybersecurity
What is our primary use case?
My main use cases for Cisco Duo involve working for a public school district, specifically in my administration building, where I manage the C-suite users, finance, HR, and my front office secretaries at my sites.
How has it helped my organization?
Using Cisco Duo benefits my organization by making it harder for potential threats to access our systems, especially since we work in public education and are a huge target right now.
What is most valuable?
What I most appreciate about Cisco Duo is the ease of use.
The strong security authentication system has been easy while logging in. I just use the app.
The benefit of having a complete passwordless environment in our organization is that it's gotten people away from using the sticky note under their keyboard - which is a huge problem. It's also helped stop the sharing of passwords. You'll have somebody that's out one day and somebody will just sit down at their computer and use that person's password. We can now stop a lot of that stuff.
What needs improvement?
There is always room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for about two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have experienced no issues regarding the stability and reliability of Cisco Duo.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not scaled Cisco Duo yet. That said, my understanding is it will not be an issue when the time comes.
How are customer service and support?
I would assess the customer service and technical support of Cisco Duo as a seven out of ten, as I do not use it frequently. I did find a recent communication webcast engaging.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not consider any other solutions before selecting Cisco Duo, as I inherited it when I got hired after someone else had begun the implementation phase.
How was the initial setup?
It took me a while to figure it out. I went to every user snad forced them to set it up. I might have done it the long way.
What about the implementation team?
I use Cisco Duo at a very basic level for the most part and I wear many hats. Cybersecurity is one of them, and I have pretty much rolled out Duo by myself as the only one managing it.
What was our ROI?
I have not seen any ROI with Cisco Duo that is immediately apparent. I assume in the back end, it has saved me from other issues that could have happened. I feel much safer having it in place. It's providing peace of mind.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing, setup costs, and licensing are all good. I haven't had any issues.
I had no issues with pricing, setup costs, and licensing since I went through a VAR, got a quote for 600 licenses, which is what we currently use, and I annually renew it.
What other advice do I have?
I did not purchase the solution on AWS Marketplace.
My advice to other organizations considering Cisco Duo is to implement this solution.
I would rate Cisco Duo overall at probably an eight out of ten.
Phone notifications and easy onboarding are very helpful
What is our primary use case?
Cisco Duo started primarily for compliance reasons but has evolved to address brute force attacks, and terminal servers and computer sign-ins, depending on the client.
What is most valuable?
The most appealing feature of Cisco Duo is the phone notification system that simply pops up on your phone. This has proven particularly beneficial for older users who historically struggled with other MFA solutions. Cisco Duo benefits the organization by fundamentally enhancing security.
What needs improvement?
It is easy to use when logging in, but at times, there's a delay in getting the pop-up on a phone, requiring users to occasionally retry authentication depending on backend services. I guess that depends on the backend or something like that. It doesn't happen all the time. Cisco Duo could be improved by making it faster.
Maintaining ease of use while increasing security remains crucial. What used to be sufficient with just a password is no longer adequate, and even a phone pop-up might not be enough in the future.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Most of the time, Cisco Duo's stability and reliability are fine, but occasional issues occur. Intermittent downtime happens infrequently, but when it does, many users call because they cannot access their systems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Duo scales effectively with the growing needs of the organization. The expansion of Cisco Duo's usage was smooth, and we continued using it because of its good performance.
How are customer service and support?
The customer service and technical support have been good, having used them twice. I would rate it an eight out of ten. It has been pretty good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I was not using another solution prior to using Cisco Duo.
How was the initial setup?
Deploying Cisco Duo is easy. For example, we have automated setting up the terminal servers, where as soon as we make a new user, we make sure we put their email address in, and then it automatically sends them an email. They put in their information and pretty much set up the phone on their own. 95% of the people are able to do it without anyone even talking to them.
What was our ROI?
We have not seen an ROI with Cisco Duo as it is primarily used for security.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing has been good, with no issues. I am pleased that the prices remained stable after Cisco acquired the solution.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We experimented with Microsoft's MFA, which only works with Microsoft products. Cisco Duo proved more flexible. Flexibility emerged as one of the key positives during the evaluation process of Cisco Duo.
Cisco Duo is easy to use. Setting it up is a breeze. So far, support is reachable. Hopefully, that doesn't change. On rare occasions or once in a while, it gets slow.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to other organizations considering Cisco Duo is to implement it. It is easy to deploy, and the company currently has 30 clients using it. The entire onboarding process takes less than a week, though end-user adoption may extend this timeline.
I would rate Cisco Duo an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Push notifications improve security and convenience for faculty and staff
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Cisco Duo is that we use it for two-factor authentication for all of our faculty and staff. We don't use it for our students, however, we implement it for faculty and staff.
How has it helped my organization?
The features of Cisco Duo improve our company by increasing security since they're relatively simple to use.
What is most valuable?
The feature of Cisco Duo that I appreciate most is the push notifications. They are great. I'm glad that they can be accessed from my watch personally. Many of our staff use the phone calls so they can just answer and press one without needing to pull out their mobile phone and get the code.
From a management perspective, I appreciate that we can enroll or control devices on the back end for people who get a new phone and forget to handle Cisco Duo properly and need to add a new device.
It makes logging in easier than alternatives.
What needs improvement?
Cisco Duo could be improved if there were a way to make two-factor authentication quicker. Sometimes it takes a few seconds to jump from page to page during its login flow.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo since probably 2020. It's hard to determine the exact timing with COVID. That's when everything started.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Regarding the stability and reliability of the Cisco Duo solution, we have experienced some outages over the last few years that are significant because people can't log in.
While we wouldn't want those outages, they haven't been catastrophic or terrible enough to make us consider looking elsewhere.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Cisco Duo scales with the growing needs of my company. While we don't grow significantly as a university compared to some other companies, it scales appropriately for our size.
How are customer service and support?
I haven't had to interact much with customer service and technical support of the solution, so I don't have substantial feedback to provide.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use two solutions on campus: Cisco Duo for faculty and staff, and Microsoft Authenticator for students. The main difference between the two is that Cisco Duo appears more reliable. Microsoft Authenticator seems to have more friction and breaks down more frequently, meaning users might complete the authentication flow but still not authenticate properly.
Our students use Microsoft Authenticator, and we get more negative feedback from that than we do from Cisco Duo. Cisco Duo works better than Microsoft Authenticator. Not everybody prefers two-factor authentication, however, Cisco Duo has the least friction of the two solutions we use.
How was the initial setup?
The deployment experience of Cisco Duo was relatively easy compared to other similar projects we've rolled out. This implementation seemed straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
We had good support and guidance with the implementation, and we relied heavily on skilled people at Cisco to help us implement it properly.
What was our ROI?
Regarding the return on investment when using Cisco Duo, separate from the financial aspect, I cannot answer that thoroughly.
It seems valuable and performs better than our other solution for faculty and staff, so I would hope it provides a better return on investment. I'm not familiar with the financial details.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We have not considered other solutions while using Cisco Duo in the last five years.
What other advice do I have?
In evaluating the benefit of having a complete passwordless environment in my company, we're not entirely passwordless since we use Cisco Duo for two-factor authentication. We still authenticate with a password before being moved to a Cisco Duo page. If there's a passwordless feature, we're not utilizing it.
Regarding challenges when using Cisco Duo, issues are usually client-side related, such as someone's phone not working correctly.
Regarding Advanced Identity Threat Detection and Response in Cisco Duo, I don't believe we utilize it. I have received inquiries when I've authenticated from new locations, however, I'm not certain if that's part of this feature.
My impression of Cisco Identity Intelligence's capability to detect and respond to identity-based risks is satisfactory.
I have not used Cisco Duo's conversational AI interface for admin tasks.
I would rate Cisco Duo overall as probably an eight out of ten.
Enhances security through online and offline authentication
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Cisco Duo is MFA.
What is most valuable?
You can do online and offline authentication. It benefits my organization by adding an additional layer of security and keeping us more secure, whether the person is corporately connected or out in the field.
The feature that my organization started using more recently in Cisco Duo is offline authentication. It has given us the evolution into offline abilities for when they are out in the field or traveling, and they are not connecting to a known network.
What needs improvement?
Cisco Duo can be improved by exploring a way to make it a more seamless integration and by deploying an in-house server.
There has to be a way to make the whole process of push notifications easier, so that when I have my phone with me, I do not have to do anything. It pushes it to my phone and says, 'Yep, that's Roger,' and sends a reply back. Getting in should be totally seamless.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Cisco Duo has been very stable. When there is a bigger problem, we get notifications from Cisco Duo saying, 'Hey, we have a problem,' and that has helped us.
A couple of times, we have had some downtime, but it has not been anything that has interfered with daily productivity. We have had a random crash here or there. With the restart of the system, it goes away. It is not something for which we have been able to identify the reason.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have not grown in size with Cisco Duo. We have added additional features over time, and it has grown with us rather well. We started out with just the basics, getting a token, and then we changed to push, and now, we have added the offline mode. We have integrated Cisco Duo into other websites, so now it pushes notifications from our websites into our mobile devices, so we get push notifications from it.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco support is not good to start with. Everything stays the same; the Duo support has been timely in responding to emails, but other support sections have failed miserably because of the lack of response time, the lack of the ability to answer questions, and the lack of tracking down an expert who can help. I can continue for hours over what they have done wrong on that.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
How was the initial setup?
The setup was not the most complicated thing that I have had to deal with. It has been a little bit easier to set up than some of the other things.
Getting the files to set up virtual servers for it was a little more time-consuming. That was probably the hardest part of the whole thing.
What was our ROI?
I have not seen ROI with Cisco Duo; probably the opposite, because it impedes productivity time to be able to get into the system. You have to authenticate and do your regular login and your Active Directory logins. When you add that up, five minutes a day, five times a day, five days a week, you have lost two or three hours of productivity just logging in.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost was reasonable. Licensing was pretty straightforward for a change.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at other solutions, but because we already had Cisco solutions in-house, we talked to Cisco Duo people two years ago at Cisco Live, and then we made the decision to move to Cisco Duo after that. There's always room for improvement in everything, but the integration that they have works very well with everything that we have.
What other advice do I have?
Our experience with Duo's strong security authentication system when logging in has been moderate. It is a people problem because you have to get people educated and up to speed on how to do things and how to set up their tokens and get everything situated. Once it is all said and done, it is not complicated, but you have got to get people educated on how to make this stuff work.
My advice to other organizations considering Cisco Duo is to make sure of the products you want to support and how they integrate the MFA functions before you consider it. Because if your products do not support it, it may not do you as much good as you want. If they do support it, it is a great way to add additional layers of security, not only to your computers but website logins and other avenues of hardware protection.
I would rate Cisco Duo an eight out of ten.
Offers strong security and ease of use
What is our primary use case?
The main use cases for Cisco Duo are for multi-factor authentication and being able to bring your own devices securely.
We don't use Cisco Duo in our organization. We sell the product to our customers.
What is most valuable?
It is very easy. Having just wrapped up my tenure at Cisco, it was used day in and day out for security. It was always easy to log in and not have to worry about logging in multiple times.
As a former employee, I think it's top-notch when it comes to protecting internal and external threats and preventing unauthorized access to the network.
What needs improvement?
Cisco Duo could be improved, possibly by adding features for the healthcare space. If you're selling something to a healthcare provider, there needs to be consideration for how to launch Cisco Duo with a handheld device that is not native, where you can install the application.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been working with Cisco Duo for at least four or five years.
How are customer service and support?
I would rate their technical support a seven out of ten based on how they respond to issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
What was our ROI?
There is certainly ROI with Cisco Duo, assuming that you can get the other MFA type products uninstalled, and customers truly understand why they purchased Cisco Duo in the first place.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
From a reseller perspective, it's still challenging to explain the whole license strategy to a client, so we really have to be ahead of that for all the true forward conversations.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not consider many other solutions before Cisco Duo. I am biased towards Cisco because I came from Cisco, so I am more familiar with it.
What other advice do I have?
The benefit of having a complete passwordless environment is more of a conversation that we have with our clients. There is ease of use. We focus on what outcomes they are trying to achieve with the different personas they're using and the security protection in their workplace. There aren't any disadvantages to the passwordless environment, but it all boils down to what our customers are saying about the product that we sell to them. I haven't heard anything negative about Cisco Duo.
I would rate Cisco Duo overall an eight out of ten.
Enhanced security with multi-factor authentication at a premium cost
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
Cisco Duo improved our security posture. It improved our security.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of Cisco Duo for us is the multi-factor authentication.
What needs improvement?
The price of Cisco Duo could be better.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for about three months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of Cisco Duo is very high. I would rate it highly.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution scales well on a scale of one to ten, I would rate it an eight.
How are customer service and support?
We don't use Cisco Duo's support directly, only through our supplier.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Microsoft Authenticator before switching to Cisco Duo because it was connected to other Cisco technologies.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Cisco Duo was quite easy.
What about the implementation team?
Cisco Duo was implemented by our supplier, who set it up for us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I would rate the pricing of Cisco Duo as a seven on a scale of one to ten, which means it is quite expensive.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We evaluated Microsoft Authenticator before choosing Cisco Duo.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Cisco Duo for its reliability, stability, and ease of implementation.
I'd rate the solution eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Has efficient authentication features and supports remote access security
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case for Cisco Duo revolves around multifactor authentication, which serves as a secondary layer of security for all users within our organization.
What is most valuable?
The authentication and single sign-on features of Cisco Duo have been particularly valuable for enhancing user identity verification and providing an additional layer of security for our organization.
What needs improvement?
The product price needs improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for approximately six to seven years. I am using the latest version available.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I rate the platform stability a nine.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We can scale Cisco Duo up or down to accommodate our company's requirements. Around 120 executives in our team utilize it. I rate the scalability an eight.
What was our ROI?
While implementing Cisco Duo may require additional time for secondary multifactor authentication, it has significantly enhanced our organization's security posture, providing valuable returns in terms of heightened security measures.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I rate the product pricing a seven out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
The platform plays a crucial role in supporting our organization's remote access security needs by serving as the secondary email security for our VPN, thereby enabling secure remote access for our employees.
It has continuously evolved by introducing new solutions and products to address emerging security threats in our industry, demonstrating its commitment to staying ahead of evolving security challenges.
If the pricing aligns with their budget, I recommend considering Cisco Duo for its robust security features and scalability. It is highly adaptable and scalable, making it suitable for organizations of various sizes within the industry. Thus, there are no significant considerations to be made regarding infrastructure compatibility.
I rate it an eight out of ten overall.
Authenticates our domain and users, making the process more secure
What is our primary use case?
We're using Cisco Duo to authenticate our domain and users.
How has it helped my organization?
We use Cisco the most. It helps us with authentication, making the process more secure. Duo facilitates authentication whenever we try to log in to a machine, making the initial process quick and easy. We no longer need to type in numbers, which is very convenient.
What is most valuable?
Cisco is a very simple solution. It has integration with BroadSoft.
What needs improvement?
There is one issue. We use our SMS messaging tool, but with Cisco Duo, you must use their service. They should allow integration with other SMS providers via API.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Cisco Duo for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. I rate it as ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution's scalability is good. 1000 users, including admins and developers, are using this solution.
I rate the solution's scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
Cisco's technical support is a bit cumbersome.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We use Google Authenticator and Okta. First, integration with BroadSoft was very important to us. Second, the initial deployment of the product was very straightforward and simple. After running a POC, we realized the product would be easy to maintain.
How was the initial setup?
Deployment is pretty simple. It can sometimes be a bit cumbersome, but it works well once you get it set up. It takes a few days and one person to complete.
Overall, it’s a straightforward and effective solution. I rate it as eight out of ten, whereas ten is the easiest.
What about the implementation team?
We need to configure it. But then the initial setup is very short and simple.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is expensive. I rate it as eight out of ten, whereas ten is expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Cisco Duo integrates with Microsoft Active Directory for login using an on-premise deployment. It also connects to cloud services, including CrowdStrike, making it a hybrid tool.
We're using Cisco Duo to enhance our security. Before implementing it, deploying advanced security solutions like MFA for every login was challenging. Each time I logged into Cisco, I had to enter new numbers, which was time-consuming and cumbersome. Now, with Cisco Duo, the login process has become much simpler. You click to log in. While it may not directly save us money, it saves time and contributes to our overall security posture.
I recommend the solution since everyone wants this type of solution to be very simple, just to work, easy to deploy, very simple, usable, and Cisco Duo checks all those boxes.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.