The IT Nerd

Pulse Secure today announced that analyst firm Frost & Sullivan recognized Pulse Secure among the top four major NAC leaders in the SMB to Large Enterprise segment by market share and among the top three NAC vendors showing the most significant market share gains.

The recent Frost & Sullivan “2018 Network Access Control (NAC) Market, Global, Forecast to 2022” report states that network visibility is critical. Every device on a network is a potential attack or reconnaissance point that must be discovered and secured, and the increasing level of malware and cyberattacks are driving NAC investments. NAC vendors have been able to add value to licenses by offering added endpoint posture assessment and remediation services, and integration modules. NAC vendors are delivering improved features and functions for visibility, mobility, BYOD, IoT and automated threat response. The result is sustained growth for the NAC market where revenues are expected to grow from 2017 – 2022 at a 16.9 percent CAGR, reaching $2.1B in 2022.

The published report provides an overview of the market including NAC capabilities, technology, drivers, adoption trends and competitive insights.

Pulse Secure offers a portfolio of software-driven Secure Access solutions that satisfy usability, contextual intelligence and policy orchestration to support data center and hybrid IT environments. Sold separately or as part of a Secure Access Suite, Pulse Policy Secure delivers a full-featured NAC solution that is easy to deploy, manage and scale. Highlights of Pulse Secure’s NAC solution within the report include:

• Markets. BYOD, IoT, interoperability and enforcement drive sales in all geographic regions, with financial services, government, healthcare and manufacturing/high tech among Pulse Secure’s key markets.
• Product. Pulse Secure NAC provides 360-degree visibility with enforcement to see, monitor and control managed, unknown and IoT devices connecting locally or remotely to the network.
• Value. Customers can start with Pulse Profiler to discover, assess and inventory network devices. With full network visibility, customers can then use Pulse Policy Secure NAC to invoke access, enforcement and threat response policies, orchestrated via API, Syslog, SNMP and IF-MAP protocols.
• Value. Pulse Secure’s highly scalable architecture is ideal for large enterprises and MSSPs. Each high-performance appliance can control up to 50,000 users. The solution also includes an embedded, enterprise-class RADIUS server.

The report also cross-references solution attributes compared to other NAC market leaders such as Cisco, ForeScout and HP/Aruba. According to the report findings, “Unlike pure-play NAC offerings, Pulse Secure’s solution can include both VPN and NAC which enables unified visibility, consistent endpoint compliance policy and access control for data center and Hybrid IT. Customers gain a stronger security posture, expedited deployment and lower TCO by leveraging a common client, policy and management framework. Unlike infrastructure NAC, Pulse Secure works with popular switches, wireless, NGFW, EMM, SIEMs and endpoint security for automated threat response. This proven, interoperable architecture simplifies deployment, administration and orchestration.”

For additional insight and to learn more about Pulse Secure’s NAC offering, download a custom version of the “Frost and Sullivan 2018 Network Access Control (NAC) Market, Global, Forecast to 2022” report.

Pulse Secure has announced that Healthwise has successfully deployed Pulse Secure virtual Application Delivery Controller (vADC), to improve the performance and reliability of its web applications within Microsoft’s Azure cloud.

Healthwise, a provider of health content and patient education, selected Pulse Secure vADC to deliver application-aware optimization for its virtualized development and application environments that are rapidly moving to the cloud as part of a hybrid IT strategy.

Healthwise is a non-profit organization with a mission to help people make better health decisions. People have turned to Healthwise information more than 2 billion times to learn how to do more for themselves, ask for the care they need, and say “no” to the care they don’t need. Healthwise partners with hospitals, electronic medical record (EMR) providers, health plans, care management companies, and health websites to provide up-to-date, evidence-based information to the people they serve.

Information technology plays a critical role in delivering on the Healthwise mission. Healthwise develops and maintains approximately 50 custom applications which have been recently migrated to the Microsoft Azure cloud environment to leverage platform-as-a-service benefits that improve operational efficiency and drive down costs.

Healthwise has deployed several virtualized application clusters on Microsoft Azure with each instance controlled by a Pulse Secure vADC appliance which provides load balancing, and SSL/TLS offload with HTTP optimization to improve application performance.

There are three examples that highlight the value of this deployment; the first is when his team built its own real-time monitoring tool using the APIs that allowed it to integrate with their existing monitoring and alerting platform to display high level network and applications metrics in a single view that would traditionally have required manually gathering reports from multiple systems.

In another example, the scripting helped Healthwise to manage the upgrade process from the unsecure TLS 1.0 to the newer TLS 1.2 standard for partners that connect to its applications.

The third example is the use of scripts to secure applications in the event of a newly discovered vulnerability.

With more of its development workloads and applications moving onto Azure, Healthwise believes its choice of Pulse Secure vADC has proven a beneficial investment,

A full case study of the Pulse Secure deployment at Healthwise is available here.

Pulse Secure, the leading provider of Secure Access solutions to both enterprises and service providers, today announced that Ricoh Group has successfully deployed Pulse Access Suite Enterprise Edition to enhance secure access for always-on network connectivity protecting approximately 97,000 employees worldwide.

Ricoh Group is a global provider of technology that transforms business processes and information management to help organizations be more agile, productive and profitable. Ricoh is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan with operations in over 200 countries.

Following a series of WannaCry cyber-attacks in 2017 against high-profile companies that led to the disclosure of personal information, senior executives began a strategic project across the Group to implement additional security measures to further strengthen network controls.

To provide safe network connectivity for employees, the security operations division reviewed its infrastructure to look at ways it could strengthen its overall security posture.

Ricoh has deployed Pulse Access Suite Enterprise Edition at data centers in Tokyo and Osaka along with Pulse Secure license servers to aid flexible deployment of security resources. Pulse Access Suite includes Pulse Policy Secure to deliver Network Access Control (NAC) with granular policy enforcement and integrated management capabilities.

The new Pulse Secure VPN and Network Access Control (NAC) solution allows Ricoh to maintain 5,000 simultaneous connections per location to support secure access for 10,000 sales employees and around 4,000 support engineers spread across multiple times zones. The solution includes local host device validation to ensure connecting devices have required OS patches and active anti-malware protection. Through the simplicity and reliability of the Pulse Secure solution, Ricoh has also moved its previously outsourced VPN management and maintenance functions back in-house leading to a 60 percent reduction in its secure network access budget.

The use of Pulse Cloud Secure with its secure access and single sign-on to cloud apps and services has also helped Ricoh deliver on its “Work Reform” program and group-wide migration to Microsoft Office 365. With Pulse Secure, Ricoh has created a secure environment in which employees can access IT resources from anywhere using a wider variety of devices.

A full case study of the Pulse Secure deployment at Ricoh Group is available here.

Pulse Secure has announced that its virtual Application Delivery Controller (virtual ADC) business unit has achieved record growth and increased market share in the last year. The announcement marks the one-year anniversary since Pulse’s acquisition of the virtual ADC Business Unit from Brocade Communications.

Factors driving the company’s success are the increased worldwide demand for online content and web services, and rapidly evolving infrastructure requirements including cloud and hybrid IT growth, DevOps, containerization/Docker and workload migration.

2018 highlights testifying to Pulse Secure’s virtual ADC market success include:

• Average deal size more than double historical averages
• 25% increase in revenues since product line acquisition from Brocade Communications
• More six-figure deals than any other time in virtual ADC’s history
• Double-digit growth in user participation within Pulse Secure Community
• Solid partner execution, as validated by the company’s Connect Now partner program, receiving CRN’s Five-Star award

Significantly contributing to the unit’s growth in the last year, and the years ahead, is the opportunity to sell integrated solutions to existing Pulse Secure clients including 80 percent of the Fortune 500 and some 22,000 other companies. These organizations, including the world’s largest enterprises, are attracted by a unified solution that combines secure access from any device to any system, proven capabilities to deliver applications with high performance and system-wide tools to manage their infrastructure efficiently for both security and performance.

The outlook is bright given these trends, the investments made by Pulse Secure in people, products and the platform and the proven accomplishments of the virtual ADC team. In the last year, the company:

• Introduced virtual ADC products on Google cloud, accelerating enterprise cloud adoption with deployment flexibility and the capability to deliver mission-critical applications in a highly secure and reliable manner
• Extended virtual ADC integration with cloud technologies including support for: Amazon AWS GovCoud for federal cloud applications; Docker containers, Terraform, Service Discovery and DevOps tools; and intuitive graphical analytics of end-to-end traffic flows
• Published tools and documentation to support the deployment of Pulse virtual ADC, with Pulse Connect Secure and Pulse Policy Secure, for closer integration with Pulse VPN and NAC solutions

Global partners play an essential role in the growth of Pulse Secure’s Virtual Application Delivery Controller. An outstanding example is Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd., who uses virtual ADC technology for the reliability, security and optimal delivery it provides for Hitachi’s Data Intelligence solutions.

Another outstanding example is SCSK Corporation, an APAC partner, who distributes Pulse Secure virtual ADC to many cloud service providers who offer these services to their customers and charge based on monthly usage in Japan.

Pulse Secure virtual ADC business results show that the company is outpacing market growth with its new acquisition and continuing to expand the product and partner capabilities in ways that extend their business reach and attract new customers.

Pulse Secure virtual ADC completes the company’s broad customer offering with secure access to deliver customer solutions for data center applications from the web, cloud and mobile networks, while providing an end-to-end solution designed to reduce cost and complexity, increase security and enhance user experience.

Pulse Secure has today announced the release of Pulse Policy Secure 9.0 to enable organizations an easier, flexible and VPN-integrated path to next-generation Network Access Control (NAC). The latest release incorporates more than 36 new features and enhancements; advancing visibility, usability, endpoint and IoT security, and threat response capabilities. As a result, enterprises can strengthen their security posture and mitigate malware, data breaches and compliance risks.

Pulse Policy Secure (PPS) is an enterprise-class NAC solution that delivers network visibility, “comply to connect” policy enforcement and security orchestration with popular switch, wireless controller, NGFW, SIEM, EMM and endpoint security solutions. PPS tackles the challenges of securing corporate networks, which are being redefined by Hybrid IT, mobile devices and IoT. Frost & Sullivan predicts that IoT connections will reach 45.4 billion by 2023. *  IoT brings new exposures as mobile, wearables, medical and other IP-enabled devices are introduced to the corporate network.

Policy Secure 9.0 boosts compliance enforcement with broader endpoint discovery mechanisms, vulnerability assessment to prevent malware attacks such as WannaCry, as well as OS and patch management verification to safeguard Windows and macOS devices. Beyond supporting TACACS+ for role-based network device support, the release also streamlines user experience by incorporating host checking caching, directory, authentication and firewall integration techniques to reduce login prompts, authorization and device compliance time.

Pulse Profiler, sold separately or integrated within PPS, automatically identifies managed and unmanaged devices (e.g. printers, VOIP phones, cameras) that are connecting to the corporate network. The system dynamically monitors for device profile and security state changes. The new version further extends IoT device discovery, classification and management features with added means to ascertain new and custom IoT devices, and to apply policy for conditional access.

Policy Secure 9.0 further enables threat response orchestration. PPS can share identity and endpoint information with popular network and security infrastructure, as well as receive network policy enforcement requests from external solutions. The release extends integration with Palo Alto Networks, Checkpoint, Juniper and Fortinet firewalls to enrich their operational context, as well as to allow the firewall to invoke NAC endpoint network segregation or blocking.

Pulse Secure offers organizations an easy, flexible and scalable path to next generation NAC:

• Start with the Pulse Profiler for dynamic endpoint and IoT device visibility, assessment, inventory and monitoring
• Deploy Pulse Policy Secure for automated guest management, mobile on-boarding, endpoint remediation, network enforcement and threat response
• Streamline implementation with wizard templates and the means to phase in access enforcement, network coverage, and core integrations
• Scale cost-effectively with the PPS appliance, which includes a high-performance RADIUS server supporting up to 50,000 concurrent devices
• Centrally manage appliances and over a million endpoints though the Pulse One console
• Simplify and expedite NAC deployment for Pulse Secure VPN customers by leveraging the same user client, policy framework and centralized management console

Availability

Pulse Policy Secure 9.0 is available for immediate delivery, available on physical or virtual Pulse Secure Appliances (PSA). Existing customers with PSA appliances under PPS subscription or software maintenance can readily upgrade at no charge. PPS with a virtual appliance, three-year subscription starts at $31,000 MSRP for 500 concurrent connections.  Pulse Connect Secure customers can cost-effectively extend their VPN investment to include network visibility, access control and mobile security with the Pulse Access Suite.

For more information on how Pulse Secure can provide your enterprise with network visibility, endpoint and IoT security, and policy-based access compliance, visit https://www.pulsesecure.net/policy-secure/overview/.

Pulse Secure today announced an enhancement to its hybrid IT strategy allowing enterprises to flexibly deploy and uniformly manage physical, virtual and cloud-based Pulse Secure Appliances (PSA) now certified for Microsoft Azure and available in the Azure marketplace.

Enterprises are moving a variety of applications and data stores to Hybrid IT environments that leverage both managed data centers alongside public cloud, private cloud and SaaS to expedite new business services, optimize on-demand computing resources and gain improved disaster recovery capabilities. The latest cloud-based PSAs allow enterprises to adapt their secure access framework to support evolving application environments, while maintaining the same user experience, operational intelligence, compliance and performance capabilities.

The Pulse Secure Access portfolio consists of best-in-class, integrated Virtual Private Network (VPN), endpoint compliance, Network Access Control (NAC), mobile security, and virtual Application Delivery Controller (vADC) technologies designed to enable enterprises centralized operation, visibility and policy automation.  Complementing its Amazon Web Services support, the new PSA certified for Microsoft Azure ensures consistent usability, availability and security for a mobile workforce accessing applications and data hosted on Microsoft Azure. PSA’s deployed within Azure offer complete feature parity including:

• Always-on and application-specific VPN with lockdown
• Split-VPN tunneling
• Single-sign on (SSO) interoperability
• Unified operational visibility
• Device compliance checking
• Integrated enterprise mobility management
• Rich user and device auditing

Pricing and Availability

Pulse Connect Secure in Azure is available today in the Microsoft Azure Marketplace as part of the Microsoft Azure Certified program. Three models are available supporting 200, 2500 and 25000 concurrent sessions respectively. Customers can purchase these PSA cloud-based subscriptions for 1, 3 and 5 years. Pricing and availability varies by regions.

Follow Pulse Secure at @PulseSecure on Twitter or visit us on LinkedIn and Facebook.

Pulse Secure today announced that its virtual Application Delivery Controller (ADC) products are now available on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace for AWS GovCloud (US). Pulse Secure’s virtual ADC solution provides the ideal platform for U.S. government agencies and customers to build out agile, high-performance cloud applications.

This announcement builds on the virtual ADC platform’s pre-acquisition position as a leader in its category on the AWS Marketplace, demonstrating Pulse Secure’s commitment to supporting the next generation of high-growth applications on the AWS cloud.

Pulse Secure virtual ADC extends the capabilities of Amazon’s own application delivery tools, offering scalable L7 capabilities that can be used to augment user experience and security in a rapid development lifecycle. Pulse Secure offers the widest support available in the market for integrating with lifecycle tools on AWS.

Pulse Secure virtual ADC enables:

• An ideal solution for application development on AWS, making it easy to build and test new applications and scale to production
• AWS Quick Start rapid application prototyping
• Cloud formation templates
• Support for common DevOps tools, such as Ansible, Puppet and Chef
• Rapid release cycles and innovative applications
• Roll forward or back for continuous updates and rapid release cycles
• Application auto-scaling to ramp up AWS server resources to meet demand surges and scale down when no longer needed to help manage costs
• Support for A/B testing and experimentation to optimize user experience
• Enhanced application functionality and ease of integration, becoming a key control point for policy enforcement and service management, while extending AWS applications to achieve a faster and richer user experience
• Layered on high-level services, such as web application firewall (WAF) application security, global load balancing, security assertion markup language (SAML) authentication and built-in web content optimization
• Real-time control of user services and transactions using TrafficScript

Application Delivery Controllers play a central role in load balancing workloads and enabling access to applications. Given its position in a network deployment, ADC technology is also an ideal location for monitoring application activities, which is a core capability of the new Pulse Secure virtual ADC.

Pulse Secure’s virtual ADC is one of the most advanced virtual application delivery controllers in the market today. The solution provides fast, reliable and scalable application delivery across virtual and cloud platforms. Automation and centralized management capabilities help to accelerate and simplify service deployment while application-level security protects the organization.

For more information visit: www.pulsesecure.net/vadc

Pulse Secure, the leading provider of Secure Access solutions to both enterprises and service providers, today announced that Entegrus has successfully deployed Pulse Policy Secure advanced network access control (NAC), to strengthen overall visibility and access security across their hybrid IT infrastructure. Entegrus, a Canadian energy company, leveraged their existing Pulse Secure virtual private network (VPN) implementation to expedite NAC deployment and fortify their infrastructure in accordance with National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) guidelines. As a result, their security organization extended visibility for remote and on-premise users and devices, as well as enhanced endpoint compliance and Internet of Things (IoT) risk mitigation.

Entegrus serves over 58,000 customers throughout Ontario. They bring electricity, renewable energy and water across three large regions, with a workforce spread out over 2,300 square miles. Entegrus’ objective is to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective provision of energy and related billing services, while providing high levels of service to its customers, partners and the communities it serves. IT security plays a critical role in protecting their delivery of energy and data services.

Ensuring always active control while maintaining flexible, seamless access to network and application resources is an essential requirement for utility providers. Within such highly regulated industries, best practices dictate a constant cycle of security readiness review and improvement to meet an increasingly potent threat posed by cyber threat actors. NAC provides foundational endpoint intelligence, resource access enforcement and IoT defenses that support industry and regulatory compliance guidelines. These compliance requisites apply to both regional and large national critical infrastructure providers.

For stretched IT departments, Pulse Secure’s Secure Access solutions are designed to streamline deployment and on-going administration using an easy, integrated, policy-driven platform that works with a customer’s existing installed base and network infrastructure. In addition, Pulse Secure’s VPN solution utilizes the same endpoint client, policy engine and appliance management as the NAC solution. Entegrus took advantage of this platform capability to rapidly implement NAC. As a result, they gained dynamic intelligence, unified policy management, automated enforcement and threat response through a single management console. Organizations can read the complete case study at https://www.pulsesecure.net/customer-success/entegrus-strengthens-security-posture.

Numerous benefits exist, including a simplified method of managing complex policies and user access rights, as well as an enforceable method of checking end-point devices to ensure that only properly patched operating systems can connect to the network. Another advantage of Pulse Policy Secure was evident after Entegrus recently merged with London, Ontario-based St. Thomas Energy.

Here’s a video on this deployment: