Bradford Networks-Brocade Partnership Confronts BYOD

In order to merge network access control software into Brocade's new HyperEdge network architecture, Bradford Networks is partnering with Brocade.

This partnership will mean that the software integrations will reduce complexity and increase control and visibility of the network. The joined architecture and access control capabilities provide a way to solve the BYOD issue, according to the vice president of business development at Bradford Networks, Vincent Ma.

Ma, of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Bradford Networks said: "We've been helping students bring their own devices into an educational environment for more than a decade, so this isn't a new issue to us. Our differentiation is that Bradford is really vendor-agnostic; we've designed the platform to easily and seamlessly integrate with multiple vendors."

Access control in both hardware and virtual appliances are sold by Bradford Networks, and the company competes with Cisco Systems, Aruba Networks and ForeScout Technologies. Devices that try to link up to the network are detected by the company's Network Sentry software, and it also fingerprints them and distributes network access to an organization's security policies.

The education sector is the key strength of Bradford Networks, and around 50 percent of its customers are universities and schools that are able to utilize the supply of mobile devices and laptops that connect to the network. According to Ma, 140,000 devices can be scaled simultaneously on the network by the education customers.

Around 900 customers around the world are assisted by the company which is also experiencing a growth in financial services, retail, government and health care - a sector which can securely move and provision medical devices and equipment on the network.

The CEO of solution provider Atlanta, Georgia-based Abacus, Patrick Hiller, stated that potential clients are after technologies which can work well without the need for complexity. The company has around 60 customers, and partners with Bradford Networks and Brocade for its networking projects.

There has been a growing interest in mobile device security at Abacus, and the ways that BYOD issues can be dealt with has become a key point of address. According to Hiller, in order to have control and visibility over data on devices, mobile device management platforms are being considered.

Hiller said: "We sell Bradford solutions with network and wired solutions and mobile device management. We're trying to architect it so it's one integrated, holistic solution versus bits and pieces because, in the end, you want a solution that is fully integrated and scalable."

Last year, Brocade HyperEdge was released, and lessened the network from three to two tiers. The senior director of campus product management at San Jose, California-based Brocade, Siva Valliappan, said that this made it much easier to connect devices and control access to critical systems.

Valliapan said: "It's a faster, two-tiered architecture that is highly resilient. It shortens the duration of deployment and gives greater visibility for the gear while reducing the management burden." (CY) Link