Explanation
Cisco ISE is a policy decision point that enables enterprises to ensure compliance, enhance infrastructure security, and streamline service operations. Some features and benefits of Cisco ISE include1:
Zero trust across the network: ISE allows only trusted users and devices access to resources on your network. It also uses intel to automatically identify, classify and profile devices.
Policy and lifecycle management: ISE simplifies the delivery of consistent, highly secure access control across wired, wireless, and VPN connections. It also allows users to add and manage their own devices through self-service portals.
Remote management and deployment: ISE supports cloud-based deployment and management, as well as integration with other Cisco products and third-party solutions.
Site survivability: ISE provides local authentication and authorization services for remote sites, even when the connection to the central ISE server is lost.
Visibility of all devices and their users: ISE can provide data about when a specific device connected to the network, what type of device it is, who is using it, what applications are running on it, and where it is located.
Among these features, two statements are true regarding Cisco ISE:
ISE plays a critical role in SD-Access: SD-Access is a network architecture that uses software-defined networking (SDN) principles to create a secure, scalable, and consistent network fabric. ISE is the policy engine that defines and enforces the network segmentation and access policies for SD-Access2.
ISE can provide data about when a specific device connected to the network: ISE uses a number of probes to collect attributes for all endpoints on the network, and pass them to the Profiler analyzer, where the known endpoints are classified according to their associated policies and identity groups. ISE can also provide historical data about the endpoint connections, such as the time, duration, location, and user of the connection3.
The other three statements are false regarding Cisco ISE:
The major business outcomes of ISE are enhanced user experience and secure VLAN segmentation: ISE provides more than just user experience and VLAN segmentation. It also delivers business outcomes such as improved network performance, reduced operational costs, increased security, and simplified compliance4.
An ISE deployment requires only a Cisco ISE network access control appliance: ISE can be deployed on different platforms, such as physical appliances, virtual machines, or cloud services. An ISE deployment also requires other components, such as network devices, endpoints, and external identity sources5.
Without integration with any other product, ISE can track the actual physical location of a wireless endpoint as it moves: ISE can provide the location information of an endpoint based on the network device that it is connected to, such as the switch port or the wireless access point. However, to track the actual physical location of a wireless endpoint as it moves, ISE needs to integrate with other products, such as Cisco DNA Center, Cisco Connected Mobile Experiences (CMX), or Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC)6.
References:
Cisco Content Hub - Cisco ISE Features1 : Cisco SD-Access Solution Design Guide (CVD) - Cisco2 : Cisco ISE Network Discovery3 : Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) - Cisco4 : Cisco Identity Services Engine Hardware Installation Guide, Release 2.7 - Cisco ISE Deployment [Cisco Identity Services Engine] - Cisco5 :
Cisco Identity Services Engine Administrator Guide, Release 2.7 - Configure Location Mapping [Cisco Identity Services Engine] - Cisco6