At-A-Glance

Cisco ISE: Technology Partner Ecosystem

Overview
Increased complexity in network environments has driven the need for a consistent approach to integrating user identity and device information across a variety of IT operations and network platforms. With the advent of mobility, bring your own device (BYOD) policies, software as a service (SaaS), virtualization, and complex cyber threats, it has become necessary to integrate identity and device information into many aspects of network policy and operations to ensure effective network control and oversight. This integration ranges from endpoint management to security analysis. Integrating technology partner platforms with Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) enables IT organizations to apply consistent methods to make their platforms identity-, device-, and policy-aware. ISE provides accurate, real-time identity, device, posture, and network access policy context across many ecosystem partner platforms, enabling them to address more use cases and undertake their functions more effectively. Integration with ISE also allows partner platforms to use the Cisco network infrastructure to execute network actions on users and devices, such as quarantine and blocking access. These identity- and device-aware visibility and network response capabilities increase efficiency of operations and help expedite network event resolution. ISE Ecosystem partner integration is accomplished by ISE sharing its user, device, and policy context with the partner; by the partner sharing its context with ISE for use in network access policy; or both. ISE network response capabilities may be extended to the partner platform for executing network actions (Figure 1).
Figure 1. ISE Ecosystem Integration Points

Ecosystem Partner Context ISE

ISE Context Ecosystem Partner

Extend the reach of partner platforms into network access Integrate with centralized policy

ISE
Make partner platforms more e ective with identity and policy enablement

Highlights and Components

The Cisco ISE Ecosystem is composed of Cisco ISE with an Advanced Feature License and a platform from one of our integration partners, including the following ecosystem solutions: Mobile device management (MDM): Integration between Cisco ISE and MDM partner platforms enables posture compliance assessment and network access control of mobile endpoints attempting to access the network. The solution performs ongoing posture checks to ensure compliance and that the correct network access level is maintained. Security event and information management and threat defense (SIEM/TD): Integration with Cisco ISE enables SIEM/TD partner platforms to supplement their networkwide security event visibility with information about user identity, network authorization levels, endpoint device identification, and security posture. This provides a composite, single pane of glass view of a security event from the SIEM/TD partner console. Partners are also able to take remediation actions via ISE; the solution provides complete visibility, contextual assessment, and remediation capabilities from the partner platform.

Make events actionable Decrease time to response

Common Use Cases

Decrease time to event classification Utilize ISE user, device type, access level, and posture information to answer common questions needed to expedite the classification of and response to a network event. Analyze mobile- and device-aware systems Utilize ISE device-type information to create analytics and policies specific to mobile devices. This helps enable a systemwide view of the mobility environment. Differentiate privileges of users and groups Utilize ISE user information to enable oversight for specific users or groups, such as populations with access to highly sensitive data or less trusted populations (guests, for example).

2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

At-A-Glance

Identify devices with security posture failures Utilize ISE endpoint posture information to identify and differentiate endpoints that have a noncompliant posture status. These devices typically represent a higher security risk on the network. Utilize ISE as a unified network access policy point Ease operations with a central policy point instead of numerous individual policy silos across the IT infrastructure. ISE ecosystem partner platforms can provide context to ISE, which can then be applied across the many attributes ISE uses to formulate network access policy.

Benefits
Increased effectiveness of existing operations and security platforms through identity and device awareness Extend the reach of existing operations and security platforms into network access policy by integrating with ISE network policies Decreased time to identify, assess, and respond to network events IT platforms aligned to a consistent source of user, device, policy visibility, and network control

For More Information

Refer to the individual ISE Ecosystem At-a-Glance documents for detailed information regarding each Cisco ISE Ecosystem partner. Detailed information regarding specific partners is available on the Cisco Developer Network Marketplace at http://marketplace.cisco.com/catalog.

2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R) C45-728402-00 06/13