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Universities Deploy Vernier Networks' EdgeWall 8800 to Increase Security, Control and Visibility in Their Networks

Posted on: Monday, 8 January 2007, 09:00 CST

Vernier Networks today announced that Cazenovia College, Grant MacEwan College, Texas A&M University at Kingsville and the University of New Hampshire have successfully implemented EdgeWall 8800 network access control (NAC) appliances since their general-availability release in November 2006. Higher-education institutions are enthusiastically incorporating Vernier Networks' newest appliances, which deliver enhanced security, visibility and control within the network security architecture.

"Colleges and universities face greater vulnerabilities than typical corporate networks, since students, faculty and administrators access schools' networks from so many different computers and locations," said Simon Khalaf, chief executive officer for Vernier Networks. "Higher-education institutions have been waiting for a comprehensive network security solution like the EdgeWall 8800, and the demand is exceeding our expectations."

The EdgeWall line of NAC appliances helps IT administrators defend their networks against intrusions and attacks from endpoints by screening users and devices for desktop policy compliance, restricting access to network resources, inspecting network and application traffic for worms and viruses, and enforcing remediation on infected and out-of-compliance devices.

Cazenovia College, one of "America's Best Colleges" according to U.S. News & World Report, has implemented Vernier's EdgeWall 8800 to gain more control over its IT networks.

"Vernier's appliances show me all the applications being used and who is using them, so we can now increase bandwidth to certain applications in real time or place limits on abusive use of certain programs, such as Gnutella and other P2P applications," said Keith Richardson, technical engineer Level III at Cazenovia College. "Next semester, we will be better prepared to ensure that our network resources are secure and available for the most valuable uses."

In Canada network security is a prime concern for Edmonton's Grant MacEwan College. "Our networks serve more than 40,000 students, faculty and administrators -- many of these users access our systems through wireless connectivity," said John McGrath, MacEwan's chief technology officer. "Vernier's EdgeWall 8800 enables us to authenticate and inspect these users' devices to protect the network from worms, viruses and other malware threats and to maximize use of the available network resources."

"I especially like generating the 'Top 10 Offenders List,' a new EdgeWall 8800 feature that ranks which individual users are hogging network resources or introducing virus, worm or spyware threats," said Danny Ramirez, Network Manager of Texas A&M University at Kingsville's Computing and Information Services Department. "Vernier's new network-use dashboard gives me visibility that was not possible before, and we can now associate specific users with malware threats, bandwidth issues and session use."

"We placed Vernier's appliances near the core of our network because of their ability to identify and isolate systems for viruses and spyware without impacting network operation," said Curtis Simonson, the University of New Hampshire's InterOperability Lab's senior technologist. "Utilizing the Vernier appliances in our production network allowed us to expand our NAC knowledgebase in a real-world scenario."

Vernier offers a complete line of EdgeWall NAC solutions, including the EdgeWall 8800, the industry's first modular high-performance NAC platform purpose-built for the most demanding enterprise-network environments. It is the first NAC product to deliver all of the following key security components: wire-speed authenticated and validated access to all users throughout the network; protection from security threats and malicious behavior; continuous compliance inspection; and a fully integrated Intrusion Detection and Prevention (IDP) engine. All of this functionality is delivered for as little as $25 per endpoint -- the lowest cost per endpoint of any current NAC solution.

About Vernier Networks

Vernier Networks delivers the industry's leading Network Access Control products that are designed to ensure network compliance. The award-winning EdgeWall product line authenticates, validates and authorizes compliant endpoints, quarantines and remediates infected devices and continuously inspects traffic for policy compliance. Vernier's products are deployed at over a thousand enterprises, higher education institutions, healthcare organizations and government agencies worldwide. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, with sales operations and channel partners worldwide, Vernier can be found on the web at www.verniernetworks.com.

Vernier Networks and the Vernier logo are trademarks of Vernier Networks, Inc.

Source: Business Wire

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