Networks are built using switches, routers, and other devices in a distributed fashion to scale and provide reliability. In this distributed environment, it has become more complex to provide new end to end services and applications in a seamless and cost—effective manner. As the business demands more agile and flexible IT services this has become a focal point for innovation and also for differentiation by vendors that have solved that challenge. To address the simultaneous needs for security, virtualization, manageability, mobility and agility in today ́s networks—the concept of SDNs (software defined networks)—are gaining attention as a viable solution. The provisioning of new services and the reliable application delivery in a dynamic IT infrastructure can be achieved with such an architecture.

The value of SDN in the enterprise lies specifically in the ability to provide network virtualization and automation of configuration across the entire network/fabric so new services and endsystems can be deployed rapidly and operational cost can be minimized. As enterprises embrace the new world of consumer tablets, smartphones and laptops, a “Bring Your Own Device” policy (BYOD) enables employees and guests to be more mobile and productive while the enterprise is secure and compliant. This trend is rapidly growing in the carpeted enterprise and a recent IDC survey shows that over 40% of employees will utilize their own devices at the workplace in 2012 alone. With the rapid growth of new and powerful smartphones and tablets, largely spurred on by Apple’s iPhone™ and iPad™ devices, and the use of multiple devices by the same user at any given time, the challenges presented to IT have exploded. Now the entire process of automating discovery, profiling, on boarding, securing, managing, and troubleshooting has become one of the single largest issues facing the enterprise today.

Extreme Networks Mobile Identity And Access Management

What then are the real technical challenges and costs to your network deployment brought on by BYOD? A sudden influx of new and ever—growing types and numbers of devices, a mix of operating systems, the immediate demand of personal and enterprise apps, and the increase usage of video, voice and data over the air and on the wire will have a dramatic impact on the security, bandwidth, access control and end—user experience for all of your trusted users and guests. The Extreme Networks Mobile Identity and Access Management (Mobile IAM) solution delivers a uniquely comprehensive approach for deploying and managing the world of BYOD and the mobile Enterprise—with this SDN integration, the solution can be extended to include an ecosystem of systems to provide granular visibility and enforcement of network policies as it is done for unmanaged devices (and any other device and user on the network) in a BYOD environment as well. The service is the next logical step in the evolution for Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™. Data Center Manager™ manages virtual data centers—Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™ manages devices and users at the access layer.

New Gen Firewalls–Content Filters And Security Appliances

The security appliance market has evolved rapidly in the last years developing new solutions that integrate the user identity in the security decisions. The new security appliances usually provide features like user based content security rules, application level visibility into the traffic, and advanced filtering engines up to Layer—7. These features may become important for enterprises in specific verticals like government or healthcare that require a more strict management of their security and fine grained security rules that better adapt to the ever—changing BYOD environment. Sitting at the core of the BYOD environment, Mobile IAM can provide unvaluable information to these appliances and allow the full development of their capabilities by adding user and location information. In exchange the network management system can integrate visibility from the new security appliances like visibility into application use per user. Device identification and location tracking, reporting back to other IT systems and automatically assign policies managed by IT systems inside or outside the network management domain. It provides deep integration with the customers‘ existing IT and management systems and leads to improved processes, decreased troubleshooting times, and lower OPEX.

Features And Benefits

Ability to share user information between the NGFW and Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™. Using the built—in notification engine of Extreme Networks™ NAC, user information can be transmitted to the Palo Alto User ID™ agent which updates username / IP Address mappings within the NGFW. The information collected will provide the ability to determine when a user connects to the network as well as when a user disconnects. The integration of top application information that is provided from the Palo Alto Next—Gen Firewall™ (NGFW. The results of the report will then be pushed into a custom field in Netsight/NAC for further visibility. It is a professional service delivered through a combination of middleware and integration services that interact with the Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™ (leveraging the Netsight Management Suite™) from Extreme Networks™. It provides APIs to integrate Extreme Networks OneFabric Control Center™ (Netsight™, Mobile IAM and NAC) with other IT solutions, management systems and databases (CMDB’s, etc.), MDM solutions, NG Firewalls, web filtering solutions etc. It enhances the value of OneFabric Control Center™ with deeper visibility into device data—augmented with asset info, contact info, device details, and phone number.