Security incident on record — April 2024 — third-party telephony provider breach exposed Duo MFA SMS logs for ~46k customers
▪ Editorial verdict
Cisco Secure Access delivers ZTNA as part of the Cisco security portfolio, with particular strength in Cisco ISE integration for device posture and native Duo MFA for the strongest authentication layer in any ZTNA deployment. For organisations already running Cisco ISE, Meraki, and Duo, the unified policy context is a genuine advantage.
The value diminishes significantly outside the Cisco ecosystem. The management complexity and Cisco licensing model add overhead that pure-play ZTNA vendors avoid. The Gartner SSE positioning reflects a platform that has not kept pace with the market leaders in ZTNA specifically.
The verdict: Cisco Secure Access is right for Cisco infrastructure customers wanting ZTNA integrated with ISE, Meraki, and Duo. Organisations without significant Cisco infrastructure investment should evaluate Zscaler ZPA or Cloudflare Zero Trust.
Last reviewed: May 2026
G2
4.5150 reviews
Gartner
4.5400 reviews
PeerSpot
8.1120 reviews
Gartner MQ: Challenger (SSE MQ 2024)
ZTNA / Zero Trust Network Access assessment
PROTECTIONStrong
App-level access control
4 / 5
App-level ZTNA with deep Cisco ISE integration for policy. Scored 4 for good app-level control within Cisco ecosystem deployments.
Sources: Cisco Secure Access documentation
Device posture checks
4 / 5
Cisco ISE and Meraki integration for device compliance. Scored 4 for strong posture integration within the Cisco network infrastructure stack.
Sources: Cisco documentation
OPERATIONSStrong
UX vs VPN
3 / 5
Scored 3 because Cisco Secure Access (formerly Umbrella + ZTNA) has higher client weight than Cloudflare or Zscaler in some configurations.
Sources: G2 reviews
IAM & MFA integration
5 / 5
Native Duo MFA integration — strongest MFA integration in the category for Cisco Duo customers. Scored 5 because Duo's phishing-resistant authentication combined with ZTNA is the most complete.
Sources: Cisco Duo + Secure Access documentation
ANALYTICSAdequate
Access & activity logs
3 / 5
Scored 3 because access logging depth and SIEM integration require additional Cisco SecureX/XDR subscription.
Sources: Cisco documentation
TRUST & ECOSYSTEMAdequate
Deployment flexibility
3 / 5
SaaS only. Minimum 250 users. Scored 3 because deployment scope and pricing is enterprise-focused with less flexibility for smaller organisations.
Sources: Cisco documentation
Strongest: IAM & MFA integration
Watch out for: Deployment flexibility
Strengths & limitations
Strengths
●Tight integration with Cisco networking stack (ISE, SD-WAN, Meraki)
●Talos threat intelligence applied to access decisions
●Strong compliance reporting for regulated industries
Watch out for
●Dropped from SSE Leaders to Challenger in 2024 MQ
●Complex Cisco licensing model adds management overhead