Contact Information: Contacts: Trent Waterhouse Enterasys Networks +1 978 684 1506 trent@enterasys.com Jackie Abramian BridgeView Marketing +1 617 584 2580 jackie@bridgeviewmarketing.com
Bethel University Deploys Enterasys NAC
Open Learning Environment Proactively Protected From Internal and External Security Vulnerabilities as Graduate and Adult Degree Programs Expand Online
| Source: Enterasys
ANDOVER, MA--(Marketwire - December 3, 2007) - Enterasys Networks Inc., the Secure Networks
Company™, today announced that Bethel University in St. Paul, MN will
leverage Enterasys Network Access Control
(NAC) to authenticate, assess and authorize over 7,000 students and
employees, and more than 4,000 networked devices. Locations in St. Paul,
MN; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; San Diego, CA; and Washington, DC are
united by a coast-to-coast voice/video/data network offering
state-of-the-art distance learning and teaching applications, including Blackboard. Through its partnership
with Enterasys, the university's IT staff has granular visibility and
control over applications using the network without the need to touch
desktop or laptop computers.
"Prior to deploying Enterasys, it was difficult for us to determine where
our users or devices connected within our multi-campus network," said Bill
Doyle, Vice President of IT services for Bethel University. "Now we can
identify users and devices and address problems while leveraging role-based
policies that prioritize and secure specific applications and users.
Enterasys NAC is a flexible solution that scales to meet our dynamic
requirements."
In providing a Christian higher education, Bethel University integrates a
broad choice of strong academic programs for its 6,300 students enrolled in
100 undergraduate, graduate, and seminary programs. A network operations
staff of only three people has leveraged Enterasys role-based policy
management to enforce security and bandwidth control at many access ports
and will extend this capability to the entire network. The policy-based
approach enables greater user mobility as the same privileges follow the
user or device as they move around the network without requiring continuous
manual intervention for every move, add or change.
"The standards-based, open-architecture approach Enterasys offers has
integrated well with our Cisco devices and other vendors' solutions for WAN
optimization and SPAM filtering," said Doug Olson, Network Services
Director at Bethel University. "We can adapt the hardware and software to
our unique needs by applying our own logic and the thought leadership from
our local Enterasys partner CompuNet."
The unique culture at Bethel University has resulted in an environment
where the students proactively report technology vulnerabilities they find
to the university's IT staff. The capable computer science students
collaborate to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of
information on the campus. According to Olson and Doyle, most problems on
the student network are accidental, not intentional. The common problem of
a student accidentally plugging in backwards a switch or wireless access
point from the local electronics store is prevented by Enterasys edge
access policies that discard the DHCP server traffic that would otherwise
disrupt network services.
"Beyond the rich features at a competitive price, Enterasys support is
extremely easy to work with as they quickly address any of our issues or
questions," continued Olson. "The main reasons we value our partnership
with Enterasys are the positive experience with their support team and the
responsiveness of their sales people to provide us with assurance and
flexibility as our infrastructure adapts to new needs over time."
In the near future, Bethel University plans to implement the Enterasys
Dragon® intrusion detection and prevention system to further protect its
network from external threats. The university is looking to improve its
ability to communicate instructions in the event of an emergency on campus.
A new wireless network infrastructure is also being deployed to support
unified control, longer distances and faster speeds for voice/video/data
applications.
"Enterasys empowers customers through active involvement with their
developers and executives," concludes Bill Doyle. "This was clearly evident
when we had an opportunity to meet face-to-face with Enterasys CEO, Mike
Fabiaschi, who listened to our ideas and articulated how much he cares
about helping us be successful. We appreciate how they have helped improve
our overall efficiency and effectiveness."
About Enterasys Networks
Enterasys Networks -- the Secure Networks Company -- is owned by a private
investor group led by The Gores Group, LLC and Tennenbaum Capital Partners,
LLC. Enterasys' unique Secure Networks solutions secure any network to
ensure the confidentiality, integrity, availability and performance of IT
services and the business users that rely on them. Thousands of leading
companies, government agencies and educational institutions in more than 70
countries rely on Secure Networks solutions to maintain business continuity
and protect vital information. The company's culture is centered on the
principle "There is nothing more important than our customers." Delivering
on that commitment, Secure Networks provides granular, policy-based command
and control of individual user, application, device, port and flow
performance, and security. Enterasys' architectural approach to network
security offers a long technology lifecycle and significant operational and
business benefits, while reducing total cost of ownership. Information
about Enterasys' award-winning policy-enabled switches, routers, wireless
products, security software, and services is available at
www.enterasys.com.
About The Gores Group
Founded in 1987, The Gores Group is a private equity firm focused on
acquiring controlling interests in mature and growing businesses which can
benefit from the firm's operating experience and flexible capital base.
The firm combines the operational expertise and detailed due diligence
capabilities of a strategic buyer with the seasoned M&A team of a
traditional financial buyer. The Gores Group has become a leading
investor, primarily in the technology and telecommunications sectors,
having demonstrated over time a reliable track record of creating
substantial value in its portfolio companies alongside management.
Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, The Gores Group maintains offices
in Boulder, Colorado and London. For more information, please visit
www.gores.com.
About Tennenbaum Capital Partners, LLC
Tennenbaum Capital Partners is a Santa Monica, California-based private
investment firm managing over $3.8 billion in assets through private funds.
The firm's investment strategy is grounded in a long-term, value approach,
and it assists -- both financially and operationally -- transitional
middle-market companies in such industries as technology, healthcare,
energy, aerospace, business services, retail and general manufacturing.
Tennenbaum's core strengths include its in-depth knowledge of equity and
debt-financing vehicles in the public and private markets, as well as a
thorough understanding of special situations. For more information, please
visit www.tennenbaumcapital.com.