Avaya joins crowded BYOD, MDM field

Network World - At Interop this week, Avaya will toss its hat into the rapidly expanding BYOD (Bring your own device) ring with new software for its policy manager that helps IT get a handle on mobile device management (MDM).

The Avaya software, called Identity Engines 8.0, run on the company's Identity Engine access control server. The software is designed to deliver unified and consistent wired and wireless network access to employees, guests and their devices whether they are on wired or wireless networks.

The whole BYOD and MDM field is red hot. In the past two weeks, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Juniper, Enterasys and now Avaya have launched products and professional services targeted at workplaces grappling with the growing BYOD phenomenon.

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With employees increasingly looking to access corporate applications on the personal device of their choice -- usually a smartphone or tablet -- corporate IT is facing a potential management and security nightmare. So vendors sense an opportunity to sell products to enterprises that allow them to easily define and enforce network access and security policies for such devices that are aligned with corporate IT policies for company-owned resources.

Now add Avaya to this roster of vendors. The company's Identity Engine 8.0 software is intended to address BYOD policy management not only for employees, but for company guests accessing an enterprise's network.

The Identity Engine server's Ignition Access Portal is designed to simplify the administration of BYOD networks with auto-registration and device fingerprinting capabilities that providing IT with detailed visibility into the type and profile of devices on the network. Access Portal can be customized and deployed throughout the network and across geographical locations based on the needs of the enterprise, Avaya says.

The server's Ignition CASE Client is designed to automate the configuration of devices for secure network access. It is a dissolvable client that helps ensure that devices meet specific security requirements before being allowed onto the network, and configures them without revealing the necessary certificates or shared keys to users.

This is useful for business partner and guests with unmanaged laptops that need secure but limited access to a company's network resources, Avaya says. The laptops can be configured in seconds and then the CASE client disappears from the user's equipment.

List price for Identity Engines 8.0 with the Guest Manager, Access Portal and CASE client ranges from $15,500 to $66,000, depending on customer requirements and the size of the network. Customers with an existing support contract get 8.0 for free, though they must purchase Access Portal and CASE if they want those capabilities.

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