Addressing the enterprise's need for a way to securely and cost-effectively provision the slew of new mobile devices brought to work by employees, Aruba Networks launched an access management system this week called ClearPass. ClearPass works with Windows 7, Android, Mac OS X and iOS devices, and it can be deployed as an overlay on wireless and wired networks as well as VPNs. 

ClearPass aims to make it easier for IT teams to handle BYOD without escalating costs, the company said, and analysts agreed. "BYOD can be a double-edged sword for enterprise IT departments today," said Zeus Kerravala, principal of ZK Research. "On one hand, there are great productivity gains to be had by enabling workers to use their own devices on the business network. On the other, provisioning, securing and managing those devices is a nightmare for IT"

With ClearPass there's no need to replace existing infrastructure with myriad new network devices. If you consider the cost of upgrading equipment, ClearPass is slated to save as much as 76 percent compared to tearing out the existing gear, according to Aruba. What's more, the company boasts that the ClearPass portfolio comes with network access controls and automated device provisioning, so separate solutions aren't necessary for these tasks.

Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., uses ClearPass to give guests access to the network, in part because it could be used with the hospital's multi-vendor network. "The number and types of personal mobile devices that people bring to work has skyrocketed in the past year," said Gabriel Sandu, senior director of technical services for Maimonides. "Several vendors proposed end-to-end proprietary solutions that gave us some of the functionality we needed, but locked us into their solution set after requiring us to upgrade."

For more:
- see the Aruba release

Related Articles:
Lancope unveils offering to tame the BYOD beast
RIM to introduce Mobile Fusion, MDM solution for competing platforms