CAMBRIDGE, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 09/17/12 -- Bradford Networks, the best choice to enable secure network access for corporate issued and personal mobile devices, today unveiled Network Sentry 6.0. The latest version of its industry leading Network Access Control (NAC) solution, Network Sentry 6.0 provides organizations with a foundation for a strong and secure bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategy with new key features that focus on automation, enhanced platform coverage, and integration with leading security solutions.

"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, 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."

NAC Enables Secure BYOD Environment
To balance the productivity gains of BYOD with the real concerns around protecting sensitive data, Network Sentry 6.0 provides a foundation for enabling BYOD that empowers IT to discover, define and control how devices and users gain access to network resources. New features of Network Sentry 6.0 include:

• EasyConnect for BYOD - enables organizations to immediately and securely connect employee personal devices to corporate wireless networks. EasyConnect automatically sets device security configurations, encryption type and other critical BYOD security settings on the user's device, enabling connectivity with little to no effort;
• Self-Service Onboarding Kiosk - shifts the workload burden from IT to the end user by providing organizations with self-registration via an easy-to-use web portal. This new 'sponsor approval' option allows requests to be vetted by authorized internal sponsors prior to granting access, enabling greater security and internal accountability;
• Identifying Unknown and Unregistered Devices - correlates users to endpoint devices, enabling role and device specific policies that are critical to balancing security and network access.
• Android Mobile Agent - In addition to iOS devices, 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 -- critical information needed to ensure a strong BYOD strategy;
• 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.

"Network access control (NAC) has emerged as an important solution for mitigating the risks of consumerization. Network and security managers will use NAC to retain control of the network in a 'bring-your-own-device' (BYOD) environment," commented Gartner research director, Lawrence Orans.

"Organizations are embracing BYOD but struggling to figure out the specific steps that are required to devise a relevant BYOD strategy. With its new automation, workflows, management and integration features, Network Sentry 6.0 enables companies to quickly and easily devise and implement a BYOD Blueprint that provides appropriate visibility and control across their network," said Tom Murphy, CMO of Bradford Networks. "Bradford Networks has earned its thought leadership through years of anticipating customer needs ahead of emerging trends, and delivering features that address critical security requirements. Network Sentry 6.0 is the latest example that security doesn't have to compromise productivity."

Availability & Deployment Models
Network Sentry 6.0 is generally available. It can be deployed on a dedicated hardware appliance, virtual appliance or via a SaaS offering, Bradford.cloud. The same functionality is delivered in all deployment models ensuring that Network Sentry can adapt to the unique needs of any network environment and business.

About Bradford Networks
Bradford Networks offers the best solution to enable secure network access for corporate issued and personal mobile devices. The company's flexible Network Sentry solution is the first network security offering that can automatically identify and profile all devices and all users on a network, providing complete visibility and control. Unlike vendor-specific network security products, Network Sentry provides a view across all brands of network equipment and connecting devices eliminating the network blind spots that can introduce risk. Network Sentry is now used by more than 800 enterprise customers worldwide in markets such as healthcare, financial services, retail, government, education and more. For more information, please visit www.bradfordnetworks.com.

Network Sentry is a trademark of Bradford Networks, Inc. All other trademarks contained herein are the property of their respective owners.

Add to Digg Bookmark with del.icio.us Add to Newsvine