Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client Room for Improvement

Greg Dend - PeerSpot reviewer
Information security manager at MTN

There is no room for improvement from my end, and there is a substantial amount of features. However, the company has a limited time period after which I can’t access the resources hindering my work capabilities. Also, the stability is highly dependent on the Internet connection. If the Internet connection is not stable, it will create a disturbance when using the resources.

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Arsalan Nili - PeerSpot reviewer
Vice President of planning and organization development at Tosan Techno

I would like a faster connection from the solution.

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DN
Network Services Manager at a legal firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

I believe that the authentication component may be enhanced. SAML, more specifically user authentication. 

For instance, to sign in to Windows, you must provide your login and password. When you log in and want to use SAML authentication, it should be able to use the credentials you give Windows and send them along, saving you from having to enter your credentials multiple times. That is something I would like to see them improve on.

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Buyer's Guide
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Issac Paul - PeerSpot reviewer
Automation Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees

The notifications need to be improved. If the VPN is disconnected for a long period of time, they should push out notifications. We need to manually check if the VPN is connected or not. Sometimes it automatically disconnects, but the user doesn't get notifications, and we need to troubleshoot or open the client to manually reconnect. Auto-reconnection would be an improvement.

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US
Software Sales Manager at Santa Monica Networks

The solution could offer tighter integration with endpoint protection to make it easier to use when routing security applications from other vendors. 

The interface is minimalistic so it could be a problem for some users. 

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Henok Tsegaye - PeerSpot reviewer
BDM/Chief Information Officer at Afcor PLC

The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client meets our requirements adequately, although improvements could be made in terms of pricing and ease of setup. The pricing could be more competitive.

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RR
Software Development Manager at Reliance Jio

Sometimes if we're always having some network issues, or maybe the client is having some network issues, we might get disconnected. Other than that, it works well. 

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Akos Szirmai - PeerSpot reviewer
Application Development Specialist at Field consulting Ltd.

One improvement could be ensuring better backward compatibility. Occasionally, I have faced issues where older versions didn't work seamlessly with the latest VPN version, requiring a downgrade for compatibility. Otherwise, the auto-setup feature is convenient, and speed/resource usage hasn't been a problem.

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RS
Technical Team Lead at Alepo

I wouldn't want anything to be improved per se. It is reliable without any errors, and the configuration is easy. However, when different configurations need to be completed, we need to get in touch with Cisco Technical Assistance Center because we don't have enough documentation on the website.

In terms of additional features, it would be good to have some improvements to the quality of service. For example, if somebody on your VPN wants to have a Google meeting or WebEx call, they should be given priority traffic.

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Vanshika Sethi - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at Target

When using Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client when my laptop goes into sleep mode the VPN wants me to enter the password again. I should not have to enter the information again. If the laptop is on and it is not switched off, the password should be in the VPN saved and secured.

In the next release, the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client should add fingerprint login authentication. Many of my other applications have it.

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GaneshKhutwad - PeerSpot reviewer
Network security architect at ATOS

The security of the product has certain shortcomings, making it an area where improvements are required.

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SameerBali - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Architect at Syriatel Mobile Telecom

All Cisco equipment tends to be expensive compared to newer options from other vendors. 

Moreover, there are some limitations, like the AnyConnect not being supported on all platforms. For example, it doesn't work with some Android versions. We don't use those features, but it's something to consider.

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Josef Bartos - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s.

In terms of areas for improvement in Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, from my point of view, the solution works well and right now I don't see the need to improve it. Probably a better user interface could be created for Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, but its core is VPN creation, and that works well, though I'm not a VPN specialist, and I'm not an expert on how to create a VPN, how the VPN gateway works, how it's implemented, and what's the architecture behind it.

A two-factor authentication feature was recently added to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. In the past, you only needed to log in with your username and password, but now, there's a token, and the user interface for that token isn't that good. That's another area for improvement. Cisco should also make the two-factor authentication better in the solution.

What I'd like added to the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client in its next release is a better two-factor authentication, in particular, the validity of the code being shorter because sometimes when I get the code and I add it to the client, it's invalid, though I'm unsure if it's centrally set up that way or if its a characteristic of the product.

Making the interface of the Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client more user-friendly is also what I'd like to see in the next release of the solution.

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Arunkumar Anbazhagan - PeerSpot reviewer
Information Security Manager at Tata Consultancy Services

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client can be improved by having better speed and reliability. However, the speed and reliability are already really good. 

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BY
Senior software Developer at E Clinical Works

I haven't found there are any shortcomings in the product. For how I use it, it works well. 

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Afsal Kaniyarakkal - PeerSpot reviewer
IT System Administrator at Malomatia

Initially, we had an issue with the posturing, however, now it's improved. A lot of improvement can happen on this still as well. Right now, the posturing that we can do is only over the Windows update. We are considering the services. We cannot assess whether that particular update is installed or not.

The implementation can be difficult and time-consuming without help. 

We'd like the product to be cheaper. 

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Gur Sannikov - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical program manager at Intel Corporation

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could improve by optimizing the use of the system resources, it is heavy on the resources. Additionally, there could be more transparency.

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Akram Allani - PeerSpot reviewer
System & Security Engineer at Standard Sharing Software

The clientless posture can be improved or enhanced. The deployment of upgrades can be improved as well.

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Gireesh Subramonian - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant Director at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees

The solution should not rely on tokens from the mobile application for logins. If you don't have your phone handy, you can't log in. Email notifications or another single sign-in method would resolve this issue. 

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Syed Basheer - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Network Engineer (Level-3) at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

Every time you need to key in the credentials, it'll generate an OTP, and you need to check the OTP and need to key in the OTP. It's work to connect to VPN. That could be improved.

If you're just turning on your laptop, it should connect automatically without keying in the credentials. There should be an option to right-click and enable the VPN to connect. There might be some inherent risk, however, there must be a way to have it easier and to connect while keeping the process safe.

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Kevin Honde - PeerSpot reviewer
Data Solution Architect at Econet Wireless Zimbabwe

They should do more updates regularly. More frequent updates would be ideal.

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TM
Solutions Consultant at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees

If there's any cloud version available, instead of on-premise, that would be ideal. That's one thing that could be helpful.

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TW
Product Manager, CMOS Image Sensors at a manufacturing company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I would like that it automatically detects when I'm not on the corporate network, it would automatically connect to the VPN. I don't want to have to click the button anymore. It should autodetect or monitor it, when I am in the office it goes to the network in the office, or when I'm not at the office, it automatically activates my VPN connection.

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Thabani Dongo - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Engineer at Cloud Direct

The solution could improve the setup, it is complex.

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SM
IT Security manager at a energy/utilities company with 201-500 employees

There is one very specific improvement that could be done regarding users logging in. When a user logs in with an expired password we did not know that the password reset function would prompt them for a new password and this system was able to be deployed on this solution. For 10 years, every 30 days, the salespeople who did not want to go inside and reset their password at the 29-day mark, would call me up and have me reset their password for them to gain access. Additionally, it would be beneficial to have at the level that I am at, the ability to sign in to this solution before you log in to the Windows environment without having to upgrade the license. This should be included in the full packages. 

Alternatively, when Cisco notices customers do not have this feature turned on they could call up its customers and inform them they do not have it turned on and could walk them through how to do it. It turned out to be just two lines of code to accomplish the task. In our case, during any of the interactions with Cisco over the years, they could have just mentioned to us this feature that would have real value-added to your employees. We do have a CCNA in-house and he did not realize that he could turn that feature on very easily. The white paper was probably available, but since our network administrator did not know about it, he never suggested setting it up. 

In an upcoming release, there should be better reporting capabilities, this is something that is available in premium packages, or if you were to get a Cisco ISE. Essentially, the upgraded reporting shows a live version of what is going on, but it does not show you historical information unless you hook it up to a SCIM, Cisco ISE, or Cisco ACS. This should be included in all packages and you should not have to upgrade or purchase other solutions.

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Navin Jacob - PeerSpot reviewer
CTO at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I'm not noticing any missing features. 

Most of the organizations are currently using Microsoft's Stack or Google Stack, so I don't think they need to build another product to do that.

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BD
Senior Information Technology Manager at a outsourcing company with 10,001+ employees

There is nothing they need to improve at this moment. 

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HemantJoshi - PeerSpot reviewer
TEM Practice at Expleogroup

There is a speed limit for VPNs because of the encryption. That could be improved.

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Praveen Kumar N - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Manager at Flex Technologies

We receive updates frequently, I think that could be reduced. 

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Josef Bartos - PeerSpot reviewer
Security Consultant at T-Mobile Czech Republic a.s.

I have been working with the same interface for the last ten years. I would say that it needs some improvements made. From the perspective of an end-user, It could be more attractive and a graphic interface would be better.

It's a problem having to balance the number of licenses with the number of physical users.

In the next release, I would like to see better graphics in the interface.

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Samraj Ebenazer - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at Tata Consultancy

There are some issues with connectivity and latency that should be improved.

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Hakan Taskin - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Solution Sales Consultant at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

There are times the WiFi connectivity has disruptions and you have disconnections. It doesn't work with two connections. I have two switches back and forth sometimes. It doesn't have a failback scenario feature. However, on the gateway side, it does, but on the user device, it doesn't have that kind of option. It would be nice to have this feature.

When a connection is from company to company using a VPN from the customer's network, it doesn't allow you to connect. It doesn't allow you connection if are on a secure internal network. It doesn't allow you to connect. this is a difficulty because sometimes customers are saying we have to get connected through VPN to a specific network for a specific meeting for one reason or another.

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SR
IT Manager at European University

The deployment of the agent software for the final customer could be simpler and more helpful.

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Prabhat Nagargade - PeerSpot reviewer
PGET (III) at LTI - Larsen & Toubro Infotech

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could improve by adding faster connectivity.

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Danie Joubert - PeerSpot reviewer
Managing Director at ProQuanta

The solution's performance and stability are average.

The licensing model is expensive. 

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RV
Director - Data Analytics at Sunera Technologies

Whenever there's a drop in internet or a connection fluctuation, it gets disconnected automatically. If it would automatically reconnect, that would be the best thing so that we can have continuity and no breakdown in connectivity. It would save us from re-authenticating. 

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KB
Process Control and Automation Engineer - PCD Administrator at a energy/utilities company with 10,001+ employees

The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client is easy for end user to use. However, it can be difficult for the developer or solutions engineer to use because you need to have the infrastructure in place first. This is to do with key validation, certificates, and domain trust.

The setup could be simplified for solutions engineers with a wizard. 

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Meena Kumari - PeerSpot reviewer
Delivery Manager at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

In the next release, Cisco should add a chat feature.

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JM
Sr.Network Engineer at NTT Security

The GUI really needs to be upgraded. If you want to use the solution, you have to be comfortable with the CLI. In addition, we have quite a lot of bug issues that need to be resolved. 

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AK
Senior Specialist: Concept Development at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees

I think that the addition of single sign-on functionality would be helpful.

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JK
Head of IT Dept. at EServices Africa

I haven't given improvements much thought. 

Technical support could be better, especially when it comes to understanding the problems. 

The cost could always be a bit less. 

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AM
Assistant Consultant at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees

At times, the login process takes a lot of time. If your network is a bit weak, on the weak side, it gives you a lot of trouble. That is one negative that I've experienced about it.

It is highly dependent upon the network connectivity, even a minor network disruption. While other applications do work a bit slow, they do work. However, I have faced significant issues with Cisco whenever there are some little network issues.

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US
Software Sales Manager at Santa Monica Networks

The configuration from the client-side would be useful. Right now, it's not centralized. There should be a lock so that it can only be configured from one place.

The solution could use some sort of graphic interface or some kind of monitor to showcase the current network to help visualize the information.

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TK
Project Manager at a security firm with 11-50 employees

We were going to use the Cisco AnyConnect with hardware tokens. However, right now, it's very complicated in terms of delivering the hardware token to the customer. That's why we are looking for a software token right now. I'm not sure how it's going to work. It's under review right now.

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YT
Consultant at Self Employed

An area for improvement is that sometimes when you disconnect or switch from one wireless network to another, it's necessary to re-login.

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CX
Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees

I would like there to be more license consuming data. We don't have the correct visibility to see the quantity of licenses we are consuming or not consuming. Some of my clients complain about that. For example, they buy 1,000 licenses and cannot see if they are using 1,000 licenses or not.

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AS
Senior Software Engineer at Socure

They can redesign the reset password, reset function, and user interface.

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GM
SOC Expert at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees

In general, it's always a good idea to improve scalability and stability. For the most part, we are satisfied.

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ZM
Head of Solutions Delivery (Systems) at a wellness & fitness company with 51-200 employees

Sometimes when you are on the VPN, it can be a little bit slow. This may not be a Cisco issue, per se.

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PiotrPopiel - PeerSpot reviewer
Business Development Manager - Managed Services at Betacom S.A.

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client could improve by making a feature to set it apart from other competitors.

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JL
Unified Networks at a program development consultancy with 11-50 employees

I think, in general, most of the applications are slow, but this is everyday stuff. I think this is more related to the link speed — the links, the lossage, etc. 

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SS
Director at a tech services company with 5,001-10,000 employees

All I care about is being connected and I know that we've run into versioning issues in the past.

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WI
Managing Partner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

It could be more efficient on the user side. We would like it to be simpler to get clients connected. 

You do need technical expertise to set up the product.

We have faced some connectivity issues. 

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TM
DevSecOps at AssureThink

Even when your internet speed is good, once you connect to the VPN the speed gets automatically reduced, which is worrisome.

If there was an autosave password then it would have been much easier to connect.

By default, Cisco AnyConnect does not update to the newest version automatically and you can't change the setting to auto-update unless you are signed into the tool. Our company had stopped allowing an older version to connect, so staff that didn't have the auto-update setting enabled were still on the older version and couldn't sign in to update to the newest version. To fix this, they would have to have their IT support team come out and uninstall the old version then download and install the newest version.

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TL
Solution Architect

The solution is great, but perhaps the security could be improved.

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AE
Software Tester at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

The interface could be a little more modern looking and it would be nice for other users if it had easier integration.

Another point of improvement is that it is easy to forget that you are in a private network and it does not log you out automatically. I did not see that there is an option for that. It should log you out after a certain point. You can forget that you are browsing a private, local network. The logout should be automized and it should have a reminder that you have logged in into a private network.

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RN
Group VP Security and Compliance at a wireless company with 201-500 employees

Configuring the solution could be simplified. You tend to spend a bit of time on it right now. It could be made easier with better UI. All of the backend configurations are command-line and it's not helpful. It takes a little bit of effort to get the system up and running.

There's a lot of newer technologies that are displacing all of the VPN technologies. The solution could benefit from having a defragmenter and should offer Mac-based device control. 

Behavior analytics and other newer technologies should be integrated into the solution.

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CO
Senior Quality Assurance at a tech services company with 11-50 employees

There are situations where the connection drops, and you may not even be aware of it until you try to do something critical. The reconnection feature can be improved.

In the next release, I would like to have a connection alert or a pop up that could tell you that you have been disconnected.

It would be an improvement to include a better interface and integration with other vendors.

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it_user1028334 - PeerSpot reviewer
Quality Assurance Manager at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees

Sometimes I need to connect with Cisco AnyConnect and I don't have access to a Windows machine, so I need to run the client from a Linux machine. If I recall correctly, the last build for the Linux was five or six years ago. So, sometimes it happens that I have this issue with not being able to use Cisco AnyConnect just because I'm forced to use a Linux machine, and the client is very old and it doesn't connect to the current version they're running on the servers on which I want to connect, even though it should be compatible with the old version I have.

It's not really an issue from our side, though, because at the end of the day I always find the solution of connecting through a Windows machine but this requires at some point to connect through the VPN. I connect a Linux machine to a Windows machine, the Windows machine to one in the AnyConnect lines product just to connect to yet another Windows machine, which in turn I need to connect on a Linux machine, because in most cases, the actual servers around the world, the vast majority of them are running on Linux.

If they could simplify connections via other machines, like Linux or Mac OS X, it would be helpful.

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JH
Senior Security Consultant at a tech consulting company with 1,001-5,000 employees

This solution doesn't address the seal of trust as a concept for a traditional VPN clients. I think that it is a dying product. The company should try to catch up with their competitors like Palo Alto and Check Point, because they're falling behind. 

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MD
Process specialist at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees

Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client would be perfect if it weren't for the fingerprint feature. I don't know how it will read my fingerprint on my computer. 

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TK
IT Consultant at Kowalik IT Consulting

Every two weeks there was a new version to install which was annoying for the users. 

The price should be lower. 

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SM
Works at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees

The hotspots give me connectivity issues occasionally. It could be easier to use if it allowed me to choose the hotspot.

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SR
Specialist in Electronic Document Management & Data Mining at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees

I would like  to see improvements in regards to the connectivity speed.

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BS
Network Specialist at a computer software company with 201-500 employees

The solution needs to add more options for clients.

There are too many VPN endpoints. It's not easy to switch between endpoints, which affects scalability.

It's difficult to change profiles. There are no menu buttons or checkboxes to make simple changes on the solution. It would be very simple to just add something in the menu to make account changes quick and easy.

The setup is a bit difficult to handle on the server-side.

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it_user1029069 - PeerSpot reviewer
Network Administrator

Often, there are new versions to install and that can be annoying for our users. 

Having to deal with a new version every two weeks is a bit overdone.

It would be useful to have an automatic install process where if you connect and you don't have the latest version, it should be automatically done.

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Buyer's Guide
Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client
April 2024
Learn what your peers think about Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2024.
768,740 professionals have used our research since 2012.