ADAPTURE Solutions Architect Andy Thompson writes about why companies are turning to Managed Cisco ISE Services for a more comprehensive and effective cybersecurity solution.
Ask just about any CTO or CSO what keeps them up at night. The consensus of those individuals would be: “Do users that have access to our network that makes them capable of seeing information we do not want them to see?”
Now ask just about any Network Manager or Security Manager what keeps them up at night. The answer will most likely be: “Are our implemented security measures effectively handling access control, and are those defense systems functional and healthy?”
If part of the solution that has been deployed to address these concerns is Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE), then the answer to the CTO/CSO level stakeholders could be yes. The Network/Security Management level concerns, however, can be in an unknown state.
And what common fear do both levels share?
Is my team knowledgeable enough to design, build, deploy, and maintain this type of dynamic environment?
Answering Your Cisco ISE Cybersecurity Questions
Yes, you can have the best car in the race, but still be beaten by the slowest car if your mechanic makes mistakes while setting up the car, your driver does not react correctly on the track, or you lose the ability to communicate or respond with the driver.
What does that mean in technical terms? Security solutions can be configured wrong from the start. Implementing an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting solution (AAA) to maintain security in your environment can be very complicated to initially configure. Also, your AAA solution can be equally difficult to respond to incidents on the fly. Additionally, losing connectivity to AAA devices when communication to your remote resources experience an outage could also expose your network.
Why is there a potential for the Network/Security Manager level have a potential unknown state? Some of these answers are the same as the ‘C’ level.
Did we properly configure our ISE solution? Did we properly prepare ourselves for any type of disaster scenario? Did we provide our remote assets the ability to still perform their responsibilities without compromising our security directives? And finally, can I tell if that environment is healthy and performing as anticipated?
Standard monitoring tools (in the case of Cisco ISE) provide extremely limited information in regard to the health of your deployment. Simple PING (“Hello, are you there?” “Yes.”) and SNMP (“Are you ok?” “Yes.”) are currently the only options that you have.
Well, unfortunately, this is simply not enough to be able to lay your head on the pillow at night and not be haunted. While these fundamental utilities provide basic insight, the layers of complexity in ISE demands a more vigilant, robust solution. So, what is the answer?
Addressing Concerns with Managed Cisco ISE Services
ADAPTURE has created a Managed Cisco ISE Services solution that solves these problems and concerns in a variety of ways. Our custom software is built with the input from ISE administrators with decades of experience with all the layers in which ISE plays. This Managed Cisco ISE solution was designed with the purpose of addressing all the concerns that we have gathered from customers over the years with ISE and other cybersecurity deployments and is continually being updated to comply with all best practices from Cisco.
Behind the one-of-a-kind Manage Services Engine (ADAPTURE Managed Cisco ISE Services) are highly trained, certified, experienced, and dedicated engineers. With the underlying engine, we can extend the reach of this reservoir of knowledge to your business. ADAPTURE offsets the concern of all levels of teams that are involved. We make the complex simple, the maintenance seamless, and take away the worry for you.
