Founded in 2000, Bradford Networks has an established reputation as a player in the network security space, with a specific focus on network access control (NAC). Along with other security vendors and mobile device management players, Bradford has over the last year developed a strong focus on detecting the threats that lie in wait for any company now in the process of implementing a ‘Bring Your Own Device’ (BYOD) mobile plan.
The company's Network Sentry platform strives to provide complete network visibility and control for more than 800 enterprises worldwide. Bradford’s customer base crosses a number of the major vertical industries that have fully engaged mobility, which includes healthcare, financial services and the retail market, among others.
Today, the company announced and unveiled Network Sentry 6.0, the newest version of its Network Access Control (NAC) platform and solution. Network Sentry 6.0 specifically provides organizations with a foundation for a strong and secure bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy.
Key next-generation features focus on automation, enhanced platform coverage, and integration with leading security solutions.
NAC Enables Secure BYOD
Bradford’s approach provides a proactive means to discover what devices are accessing a given network, and defining and controlling how devices and users gain access to network resources.
New features of Network Sentry 6.0 include the following:
EasyConnect for BYOD: Enables a business to quickly and securely connect employee personal devices to their enterprise wireless networks. EasyConnect will automatically set device security configurations, encryption type and other critical BYOD security settings on a user's device so that any new BYOD device can quickly gain trusted access to network resources.
Self-Service Onboarding Kiosk: Shifts security responsibility directly to end users by providing organizations with self-registration via an easy-to-use Web portal. Most BYOD devices can be quickly set up for proper network use, but the real issue is one of overburdening IT resources with the need to do so. When dealing with many employees, alleviating the workload for IT delivers significant value. The new capability also provides a 'sponsor approval' option that requires requests to be vetted by authorized internal sponsors before access is granted, which provides direct internal accountability for who gets on the network.
Identifying Unknown and Unregistered Devices: Directly and quickly correlates users to endpoint mobile devices, and enables role and device specific policies that are critical to balancing security and network access.
Android Mobile Agent: Android mobile devices can now be managed and validated before providing network access. The new agent provides device visibility, including OS, host name, network interfaces, serial numbers, whether it's jailbroken/rooted, and a list of installed applications – the same critical information that Network Sentry provides for iOS devices.
Palo Alto and Sourcefire Integration: Network Sentry provides these industry-leading security solutions with unique user/device information and remediation capabilities which are critical to securing networks that embrace personally-owned devices.
"Implementing BYOD is key to our business strategy, and will help our students, faculty, staff and employees be more productive and further contribute to our business growth. The first step to a secure BYOD policy needs to be visibility and control over who and what is accessing our network at all times," said Jonathan Domen, network manager at Bryant University. "With its automated workflows, broad network infrastructure and mobile device coverage, and out-of-band architecture, Network Sentry 6.0 supports our existing network equipment and enables us to quickly and easily create a granular set of BYOD policies that are tailored to the specific roles within our organization."
These new Network Sentry automation, workflows, management and integration features enable any business to quickly and easily devise and implement a “BYOD Blueprint” that provides appropriate visibility and control across any given network.
This is true regardless of what collections of vendor hardware and software makes up the network infrastructure.
Bradford’s approach is to ensure all-encompassing interoperability and rapid deployment. This interoperability makes it easy for IT to develop the right BYOD policies – and this is where IT resources are put to far better use.
Once BYOD policies are properly defined, Network Sentry allows a business to offload a significant amount of the security provisioning directly to end users.
Network Sentry 6.0 is generally available immediately. It can be deployed on a dedicated hardware appliance, through avirtual appliance or through a SaaS offering – Bradford.cloud. The same functionality is delivered in all deployment models ensuring that Network Sentry can adapt to the specific needs of any network environment and business.
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