Forescout Platform Reviews

I am a freelance cybersecurity consultant. I provide and implement products for our clients.

Forescout Platform is a very good NAC solution.

It's a very good product.

The agentless visibility is definitely unmatched and outstanding. 

The actions that the agentless visibility, allow us to perform on the endpoint, are really amazing, especially in the way that it is done. 

It is a good solution, Garner rated because their leadership quadrant position is responsible for their market.

As a user, if I am using a laptop that is Wi-Fi connected, Forescout identifies my port connectivity as one user license, and if I take that same laptop with the same username to a wired network, which is also the same network that is used for the Wi-Fi connection, Forescout detects it as a separate license.

At times, I am working on wireless and sometimes I enter a zone where there is no wireless connection, which forces a land connection. This is an issue that needs to be resolved because it consumes another license for the same device and the same user.

This issue has been escalated to Forscout directly.

There was integration with Microsoft SCCM previously, and have suddenly stopped the open integration module for Microsoft. Customers are not aware of what is available to them in terms of the open integration module. 

Forescout Platform advised that there are many options available and many things they can do, but they don't tell customers exactly what they are. 

They need clear documentation and direction as to what the customer can expect from the open integration module. Customers need some clarity on what they can do and what is not possible to do.

When it comes to a full open integration we need to rely on the professional services from Forescout directly, no one can implement it as there is a limited amount of knowledge available.

They need to be more considerate, and there should be good documentation available to the customer.

They need to improve their selling approach or the consultant approach.

One of their use cases is an ITM use case, and ITSS asset management, but they don't really do ITSS management. They only detect the ITSS and all the parameters around that test, but they do not have any integration with any database system where they can store all these details and act like a typical ITSS management system. 

They should remove that use case in full. They should say that we complement your ITSS management by detecting the unknown assets in your network. This would be right.

I have been familiar with the Forescout Platform for more than four years.

In terms of technical support, their engineering team is very rigid. They must provide us with some clear answers and if they exceed the time it takes to resolve the issue, they will charge for that extra time. For example, if they go one day more, they will charge for that extra day.

We have completed significant deployments which are more than 4,000 endpoints. There was a complex network architecture.

All of the implementations have gone very well and the customers are satisfied.

They base the license on the number of devices, which is quite misleading. If I am one user, it should be based on that rather than how many devices I use with the same user name. 

To base it on the number of devices it can reduce one more license from my overall license allotment. It can result in four or five licenses for one user.

I was a partner of the company who was a Forescout Platform partner and I was responsible for bringing in Forescout, and establishing the service line for the Forescout Platform sales, pre-sales, and the implementation, but I am no longer with that company.

I would rate Forescout Platform an eight out of ten.

• Immediate relocation of network devices to segregated "Vendor" network based on autonomous analysis. Prevents scanning, malware spread, corporate asset (i.e. printer) misuse, and reconnaissance on our network by third-party devices. Allows us to block VPN from our corporate network but still allow Vendors to establish them.
• Better information provided by Level 1 support (helpdesk) regarding asset information as we provide them with R/O access to the tool
• Visitor policy communication & acceptance

• Network Access Control, its core use
• Asset Intelligence for deskside
• "What port is it plugged into" intelligence for deskside
• Patch-level Auditing
• Emergency response, risk assessment information to get a view of the vulnerability
• "What PC is a user on" for helpdesk/IT security/deskside
• Forces PEN Testers to request permission to exist on your network

• JAVA Memory management - leaving the app running for multiple days requires relaunch
• Search - needs boolean functionality (or psudeau operand now working)

Stability has been good.

• It is very scalable, allowing additional strategic appliances as required in either physical or VM format.
• We control >400 field sites, two Oilsands mines, multiple remote platform locations, 2 Canadian Metro offices and 1 UK office with 4 appliances centrally located.

Customer Service:

It's excellent! 

Technical Support:

It's excellent!

No previous solution was used.

It was straightforward, although I recommend having a strong relationship with network-asset owners to ensure SNMP rights are looked after.

We used a vendor, Conexsys (Graham Cheng & Jerry G), who were excellent.

Forescout's flex licensing has made our deployment more agile and helps us adapt our environment without buying more hardware.  

Under their old model, licensing was tied to 4k and 10k appliances which strained under the new v7 and v8 Forescout OS when nearing their designed capacity.  To acquire a new appliance, physical or virtual, meant buying licensing for that size of appliance.

Under the new flex licensing model, we've been able to deploy VM appliances, responsible for host interrogation and management, while retaining our physical appliances for SNMP switch management, and span aggregation.  

Under the flex licencing model, we've deployed to our ICS segments, and are deploying VMs to our DCS environment, allowing for full visibility under one 'pane of glass' of nearly every host on our network.

Ensure you consider everything you want to monitor that has an IP. Devices with multiple IP's count multiple times against your license count.

This was chosen without hands-on evaluation based on reviews and industry feedback.

If you have distributed services (DHCP), strategically ensure you generate reliable traffic to establish timely inspections. We've avoided the use of traps by centralizing our DHCP at HQ, but it causes black holes during inspection schedules in case of a static device being plugged in.

Our primary use cases of Forescout Platform are network access control, user access control, and Wi-Fi network access control.

The most valuable feature of Forescout Platform is that it has everything that Aruba has at significantly less cost.

Unfortunately, Forescout Platform can only be accessed by Android systems. iOS is not supported, so there are some limitations to the operating system. I would like to see all devices have access to the solution.

Forescout needs to upgrade its development in the future.

I have been using Forescout Platform for the last two years.

Forescout Platform is very stable.

The solution is scalable. It is not one box that has limitations on licenses. Forescout Platform is more capable than Aruba ClearPass. 

Customer service and support is a four out of five overall. I am satisfied with the support I receive. 

Positive

Comparing Forescout to Aruba ClearPass, the difference is in the price and the level of policy enforcement.

The initial setup of Forescout Platform is very easy because it is pre-configured. I would rate it a five of five for the ease of setup of this product.

Forescout Platform licenses include everything integrated into the system including eyesight, recovery, and valid license. All three come in one box. It is a very competitive product, being half the price of its competitors.

5,000 user licenses will cost you between seven and eight million dollars, compared to 20 million for Aruba.

Overall, I would rate Forescout an eight out of ten.

Endpoint visibility, policy flexibility, compatibility and integration with other products.

Automation! One broad example is that we can now stop network threats right away and without intervention.

Forescout is constantly adding new features, so this may change as of this writing, but sometimes the switch management interface doesn't display accurate information which relates to false positives on individual switch access errors.

1 year

None that were Forescout related. CounterACT always opens a bunch of little IP sessions with endpoints, ake sure you have a large enough connection table on your firewall if you plan to put it behind one.

Minor. Had to reinstall one virtual appliance, which is painless when you have an Enterprise Manager.

No, this is one of the products strengths.

10 out of 10. Very responsive and address concerns quickly.

9 out of 10. Really fast response, high level of competency.

I switched from Cisco NAC because it is reliant on 802.1X, and has no other function than to ensure endpoints have authenticated via your method of choice.

Straightforward. Setup is simple with a solid, pre-defined set of policies that you build on and customize as you learn.

In house.

Without access specific numbers, we now have the ability to instantly shut down internal malicious hosts or traffic, refuse or restrict access to non-compliant hosts, discover risks on the network we didn't know were there, and automate the remediation of a multitude of security risks. As I work for an organization that spends a lot on security administration, at a minimum, the cost savings must have already paid for the product.

Palo Alto

Make sure to plan for all endpoints. If you want full coverage of your networks, account for anything that has an IP address. For example, a busy core switch can have 20+ IP addresses, and each one goes against your license count. Also, if you plan to have it behind a firewall, take into consideration your firewall's connection limitations. Although CounterACT isn't really a heavy bandwidth user, it does open a ton of short connections on a constant basis. The more you tune these down, the less accurate your real time host information becomes.

We use the Forescout Platform for network access control and device management. The solution allows us to check the posture of our workstations to ensure they are compliant before granting them access to the network. We also use it to give people different privileges and access to our routers, switches, and firewalls based on their roles.

The solution's support is excellent. They are making an effort to attract more customers, which is reflected in their fast response times.

Forescout Platform has granular features and one of the most impressive features is the agentless feature. No agent installation is necessary for Forescout, which is amazing! It allows for agentless visibility into our network, even for Cisco devices that normally require the installation of AnyConnect.

Forescout Platform needs to improve how the device works in preventing rogue servers. Cisco has an impressive way of detecting rogue servers or rogue wireless access points to help protect the network. 

There is still room for improvement in this area with the Forescout GUI.

Integration with other products can be improved upon.

Fortinet and Cisco ISE have larger communities than the one available for Forescout Platform. The community size for the Forescout Platform can be improved. Forescout Platform doesn't have a big online community where people can go and ask questions and get solutions.

I have been using the solution for four years.

The solution is stable.

The solution is scalable.

The technical support is great. They are trying to win the hearts of the customers by responding immediately to calls.

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. Large infra may take few days to deploy.

The price of Forescout is reasonable when compared to Cisco ISE.

I give the solution a nine out of ten.

We have around 50 people using the solution.

I would advise against investing in this solution for a small environment, as it is quite costly. For medium and enterprise-size environments, however, this is an option worth considering. The solution is much cheaper than Cisco ISE and Fortinet. 

The only community is still small.

The most valuable features of the Forescout Platform are NAC for sharing, Network Access Control, and port sharing of the devices.

Forescout Platform could improve the vulnerability management as well as the control on the endpoint, which needs to be connected to my network.

In an upcoming release, they should add security features, such as malware and threat protection.

I have been using the Forescout Platform for approximately six years.

Forescout Platform was not a stable solution in 2015, but over the year it has become more and more stable. At this point in time, it is a stable solution.

The Forescout Platform is scalable.

The support from the Forescout Platform is great.

I rate the support from Forescout Platform a nine out of ten.

Positive

The price of the Forescout Platform is expensive. I purchased it for approximately 94 lakhs.

I rate Forescout Platform a nine out of ten.

Forescout Platform allows actions to be automated, which reduces the response time to any suspicious or malicious activity.

The best parts of Forescout Platform are its orchestration features, discovery capabilities, classification buckets, and flexibility in creating policies.

Forescout Platform sometimes returns false positives, so there's some fine-tuning to be done there. There are also some limitations with the Mac and Linux versions - the company claims they're agentless, but they're actually agent-based. In addition, there are a few actions that don't work in conjunction when we apply multiple actions, such as wanting to send a notification and isolate a device. In the next release, I would want to see better compatibility and visibility on the cloud front, and the system needs to keep up with upcoming technologies and trends.

I've been working with Forescout Platform for four years.

Forescout Platform is stable.

Forescout Platform is scalable.

The initial setup was very simple.

I would rate Forescout Platform's pricing as four out of five.

I would give Forescout Platform a rating of eight out of ten.

To be able to improve security within our network. We needed Network Access Control (NAC). As such, we reviewed the available vendors who could provide this service to us and selected the Forescout CounterACT (CA) product primarily because we needed to be able to position the product in several regional locations. At the same time, we managed and controlled it locally and dynamically where we have it responding to a single control center. While we have implemented today strictly for wireless access, we will be extending that to include wired access in the future.

NAC: Forescout CounterACT has allowed us to better open our access and control wireless access globally from our HQ. This allows us to monitor the network access for every office globally. This has improved overall security, reducing risk and opening up the opportunity to provide greater end user flexibility. 

The key feature we use is AD integration. That feature needs the least amount of attention once set up. 

Monitoring and logging are the pieces that we use most day-to-day. These are used by both our network and security teams to ensure proper operation with minimal risk. Whether machines attempting access are firm managed, vendors visiting, or IoT, all are available within the CA appliance. We plan to extend the use to further support growth functionalities and new work from home initiatives going forward.

Better reporting and analysis of access (based on client) would be helpful. Also, a tool that allows tracing a user through the rules to authentication.

More detailed analysis during the authentication process, especially for troubleshooting access issues. We have found that troubleshooting RADIUS controls is quite arduous, as it is today. A trace function could easily resolve this by providing a means by which access issues from a certificate to passwords or accounts could easily be identified and remediated.

Two years.

ForeScout CA has proven itself to be very solid.

It is very scalable with a lot of features that we aren't even using yet today.

Technical support has been great. They are very knowledgeable, helpful, and considerate.

We used Cisco ISE but found that it did not have the flexibility that we needed within our organization.

Setup was anything but straightforward, but this had nothing to do with Forescout. This is the nature of NAC solutions in general. 

Setup takes significant preplanning. Don't expect to just drop it in, then have it up and running, even if you already use an alternative NAC product. However, it is worth it.

We used a Professional Services engagement from Forescout, but still experienced a lot of issues.

I don't know.

The fact that we were allowed to spin up as many servers as we had need of to support our geographic requirements while paying for licensing as an enterprise truly set Forescout apart from the crowd and improved the way we could design our access.

We had ISE. As that product reached EOL, we considered whether there were alternatives to a NAC that we should consider but felt that a NAC is a security requirement.