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Adaptive Network Security offering helps Bradford capture new verticals

Concord, N.H. – Bradford Networks, a proven leader in securing today’s heterogeneous networks, announced today that it ended 2009 with record revenue, double-digit year-over-year revenue growth, year-over-yeari bookings growth of 30 percent, more than 150 new customers and several significant new channel partners.

The company was particularly successful in expanding its footprint in the education vertical, with dozens of new customers including University College, Oxford in the UK and University of Colorado and Penn State Hazleton in the US. Bradford also gained traction in the healthcare vertical with wins at Meridian Health, Sarasota Memorial Health Care System and Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island among others. New enterprise customers include Cadillac Fairview and National CineMedia.

Bradford also introduced a new channel program that has attracted several significant new channel partners. The company’s SecureNet Partner Program offers margin opportunities, marketing and sales materials, sales and technical training, and pre- and post-sales support to a variety of partners, including VARs, Integrators, Consultants and Master VARs. New Gold VARs include Carolina Advanced Digital Solutions, Integration Partners and Tribridge in the US, as well as QoLcom in the UK.

“2009 was a tough year for so many companies, but thanks in part to our SecureNet partners, Bradford weathered the storm and is now on a good growth trajectory,” said Gregg Bjork, the company’s CEO. “We saw a major improvement in our business in the second half of the year, with bookings up over 50 percent higher than the first half of the previous calendar year, and 2010 is off to a strong start.”

According to Bjork, Bradford’s Adaptive Network Security™ (ANS) platform and its Network Sentry™ solutions built on that platform have been key catalysts for recent growth. Network Sentry 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. Vendor-agnostic and running out-of-band, it enables organizations to improve their network security without having to rip and replace any infrastructure. Further, Network Sentry solutions can dynamically adapt to changing security needs by automatically responding and securely provisioning network resources based on pre-established policies.

Bradford also won accolades from press and analysts during the year. In October 2009, Bradford Networks’ NAC Director™, a Network Sentry solution set, earned a coveted “Best Buy” designation from SC Magazine in a group test of network security solutions. The Best Buy rating is awarded to the product that SC Lab rates as “outstanding.” Bradford was also recognized as a Visionary in Gartner’s March 2009 report, “Magic Quadrant for Network Access Control,” further reinforcing a 2008 rating by Forrester Research, Inc. as a Leader in “The Forrester Wave: Network Access Control, Q3 2008,” September, 2008.

Bjork reports that Bradford’s unique approach to modern network security is capturing the attention of many new customers and prospects. “Our approach transcends the vendor-based silos that most network professionals have put up with for years,” said Bjork. “Adaptive Network Security makes people sit up and take notice. We’re being invited to bid on more new business as a result.”

Industry experts believe that network security will continue to be one of the top areas for IT spending in 2010. According to a January 2010 Forrester Research, Inc. independent report titled, “The State of Enterprise IT Security and Emerging Trends 2009 to 2010,” “Security budgets continue to grow: Most notably, budgets for acquiring new security technology are recovering: 42% of enterprises expect spending on new security technology to significantly increase (a greater than 5% increase in budget), while only 10% expect new security technology spending to significantly decrease in 2010.”

An earlier Forrester report, “Market Overview: IT Security in 2009,” predicted that, “Security initiatives will focus on four things: protecting data, streamlining costly or manually intensive tasks, providing security for an evolving IT infrastructure, and both understanding and properly managing IT risks within a more comprehensive enterprise framework.”

Bradford’s Adaptive Network Security platform addresses all these points, said Bjork. “ANS gets to the heart of two major security challenges: automating repetitive tasks in order to free staff to deal with more complex issues, and striking the right balance between security and accessibility,” he explained. “And that will be key to our success going forward.”

To learn more about Bradford’s ANS platform, visit www.bradfordnetworks.com and download a complimentary white paper, “The Emergence of Adaptive Network Security.”