Bradford Campus Manager provides controlled network access and
helps eliminate costly IT problems

Concord, N.H. – June 29, 2005 – Bradford Networks, developer of Security and Policy Enforcement Solutions for Enterprise Networks, is entering a very busy period providing security solutions to colleges and universities in an effort to prepare for the onslaught of students as they return to campus in late August.

As you walk along the tree-lined pathways of a typical campus during the summertime, all seems quiet and calm. Other than small groups of summer students and occasional orientation sessions, the campus often appears to be at a lull. For the Information Technology staff, this is the calm before the storm.

During the mid-to-late summer months, the Information Technology department is in full swing busily preparing for the beginning of another semester, a time when thousands of students arrive on campus. One of the first things the students want to do is plug into the network to start communicating, viewing schedules, and sharing data. Often students plug-in and start-up their computer before they even venture out onto the campus.

Thousands of students connect their PCs to the network, typically within a 48-hour period. If each one of these devices was pre-tested and preconfigured, then the experience would go fairly smooth. But, seeing that each PC varies in age, type, and most importantly software configuration, the influx of students usually means users can expect network downtime and excessively long helpdesk support response times. If a few students connected to the network with infected machines, then viruses can potentially spread rapidly to many other users.

This is where Bradford Campus Manager solution comes to the rescue of many college and university IT departments. A network where Bradford's solution has been deployed will ensure that every student connecting to the protected network meets the specific security policy of the institution. The Bradford application will validate that each PC has the correct anti-virus, anti-spyware, and Windows patch levels. It also performs vulnerability scans on the PC to identify whether any potential threats exist. If a PC is determined to be 'at risk', then it is isolated in a quarantine area where the user can self-remediate the problem.

In addition to Bradford's Security Management Application, the solution also performs registration of each student's PC and enforces an acceptable network use policy. If a user is not authorized to access the network or violates a specific policy, then the device will be easily isolated from the production network. One of the important features of the Bradford solution is that it will interface with every leading switch vendor's product available today and control users at the port level. No other solution is available on the market that offers this level of control.

Implementing a Network Access Control and Security Policy Enforcement solution is a proactive step toward ensuring network stability and is becoming common at most higher education institutions. Of course the cost savings resulting from the installation of the solution are compelling, but more important is the improved performance and reliability of the network.

For more information, please contact our sales team.

About Bradford Networks

Bradford is an industry leader in developing innovative enterprise network security and policy enforcement solutions. We allow our customers to leverage their current investment in their multi-vendor network infrastructure and deliver significant features and benefits in the areas of policy enforcement, monitoring, and control of enterprise networks. Through the enforcement of network usage policies, our solution helps ensure that a customer’s network is safe and secure. We solve real world network issues: such as, controlling unwanted users, enforcing version control, setting policies, network access, and overall client and device management.