EAC Network Solutions

I stumbled across this article which i think sums up nicely the schools argument as to whether or not they should allow students to bring thier own mobile devices into school for use.

School considers BYOD phone use in class

In November 2011 Meru Networks aquired UK based Identity Networks to aid thier own BYOD solution, but what do these new Meru products allow thier customers to do?

Meru Identity Manager, solves the problem of delivering secure 802.1x enterprise wireless network access to users with personal devices, with guest management, Identity Manager can authenticate users against a directory prior to allowing access.

Meru Smart Connect, automates access to the WLAN via centralised policies, provides an integrated customisable portal for end user access, automated device configuration.

So how does this differ from Bradford Networks?

Bradford Networks is a vendor agnostic Network Access Control solution which secures both the wireless and wired network environments. Bradford runs disolvable agent software on connecting client devices to scan machines against a compliancy policy, testing devices for OS Version, Patches, Anti-Virus Software, Anti-Spyware, Definition Updates.

Meru Identity Manager and Smart Connect are primarily focused on providing secure access to the WLAN, whereas Bradford Networks provides takes a more holistic aproach, enabling the whole network to be controlled and monitored.

To conclude we believe that Bradford Networks provides a more complete solution, enabling greater control and levels of network protection and security of both wired and wireless networks, however Meru Identity Manager and Smart Connect can further enhance the security of the WLAN by making it easier to deploy enterprise levels of encryption to BYOD personal devices.

Each solution has a number of benefits and the selection of the approriate solution as always should be based on the requirements of each individual environment. At EAC Network Solutions we hope that the Bradford Networks Mobile Security Suite for Meru (Anticipated some time 2012) will address some of these issues and enable further integration between these products.

Bradford Networks announced the first of thier vendor optimised, easy to use, wizard driven software suites specifically tailored for the BYOD Mobile campus or workplace. The Bradford Networks Mobile Security Suite for HP will be available in March 2012, and combines Bradford’s existing Network Sentry Platform with wizard driven support for HP Enterprise Mobility Solutions.

Read Bradford Networks full press release here

According to Gartner, NAC will be a key element in a flexible approach to securing a “bring your own device” (BYOD) environment. “The ability to support NAC policies in wireless LANs will become more important during the BYOD era,” said Gartner research director Lawrence Orans.

EAC Network Solutions understand that Bradford Networks will be adding further vendors to thier mobile security suite portfolio.

It was recently confirmed that EAC Network Solutions were approved as a HP Gold Partner 2012 Networking Specialist, confirming EAC’s specialist knowledge of networking with HP Procurve network hardware.

EAC have been focused on supplying and installing HP Procurve network hardware as their preferred wired networking vendor, primariliy because of their high reliability, lifetime warranty, and good value. EAC have developed a great level of experience integrating HP Procurve hardware into many customers, including many schools, academies and recently Kingston University, which was a combined Bradford Networks and HP Procurve wired and wireless deployment in the halls of residence.

HP are delighted to welcome EAC Network Solutions as a HP Gold Partner, especially with the new Bradford Networks HP optimised Mobile Security Suite launching this month and soon to be supplied on a HP Alliance ONE zl module.

EAC Network Solutions are currently the only HP Networking Specialist Gold Partner in the UK who also have achieved Platinum partner status with Bradford Networks.

EAC Network Solutions have escalated Lightspeed Systems to one of thier top vendors. In recent months Lightspeed Systems have made significant changes to thier product portfolio, business model and pricing, which has made thier education focused suite of products more affordable to all of EAC Network Solutions education customers.

Lightspeed Systems internet filtering solution has in our view has been way ahead of the competition in the education space for a number of years. We are very excited about the changes the company have made which is means the product is now directly competing on price with other filtering solutions which in our view are not as well focused on the requirements of our education customers.

Having spoken to Roy Harris of Lightspeed Systems at the BETT show it is very clear that there has been a significant increase in customer interest in thier products, especially the New Lightspeed Suite, and My Big Campus.

Forward-thinking Beaconsfield High School in Buckinghamshire has become one of the first schools in the UK to adopt a combined Bradford Networks and Meru Networks secure wireless solution. Designed to offer Sixth Form and Year 9 and 10 pupils access to a more independent and personal learning environment, the implementation paves the way for state schools to go wireless by encouraging pupils to bring their own devices (BYOD) to school and save on increasingly scarce school IT resources.

To view the full article please click on the following link: http://www.sourcewire.com/releases/rel_display.php?relid=69595

New Chief Executive Brings More Than 30 Years of Software and Business Experience to Network Security Leader

Bradford Networks, the best choice for network security in evolving IT environments, today announced the appointment of Dan Haley to chief executive officer (CEO). In this role, Haley will act as the company’s chief strategist and visionary, overseeing the day-to-day management of the rapidly growing business.

Haley comes to Bradford Networks with more than 30 years of operating and international business experience with several software companies. During his career, Haley had helped these firms successfully navigate through and leverage major market shifts to their best advantage. A former venture capitalist, he also has deep experience in financing events, including initial public offerings, acquisitions, mergers and fundraising.

Read the full article here

Oddizzi is a bright and refreshing teaching resource that instantly brings the world to life in your classroom.

We’ve had a very quick look at the site, and it looks like fun, great for the primary schools, they have a 21 day free trial so no reason not to take a look yourself.

To Deliver the curriculum via ICT using students own laptops & smart devices both from within school and from home.

Using Meru Wireless & Bradford Networks!

To Deliver a standard desktop that can be accessed on both school owned and non-school owned devices, with full access to the schools curriculum software.

Using Microsoft VDI Premium suite, and Intel branded fully redundant hardware!

To deliver a powerful, flexible server solution which both provides a high level of performance and guaranteed service levels.

Using Microsoft Hyper V R2 server virtualisation and Intel branded fully redundant hardware!

To deliver high quality internet connections with BECTA approved granular filtered access to the wealth of available resources on the internet.

Using Lightspeed Systems and ISP partners.

We can demonstrate how schools can save huge sums of money on thier ICT budgets through implementation of new technologies (up to £1m over a 10 year period, depending on the size of the school)

Please contact us to hear more…

EAC Network Solutions are today attending the 2nd annual Festival of Education at Wellington College. We will be promoting our vision for ICT in education, and showing how using the latest technologies schools can benefit from better ICT systems now and in the future whilst saving large sums of money from thier ICT budgets over a 5 to 10 year period.

If you are interested to learn more watch out for further posts, come and talk to us at Wellington College today, or contact us during normal working hours and ask to speak to someone about our Vision for ICT in Education.