Pulse Secure, global provider of secure access solutions to both enterprises and service providers, has been recognised as a technology leader and among the top three performers in Network Access Control (NAC) according to research by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions.
The NAC market, estimated at nearly $1.3 billion and growing by 27.6 percent per year, is driven by workforce mobility and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), global regulations, automated threat response and Internet of Things (IoT) security risks.
2019 NAC Market Outlook
According to the '2019 NAC Market Outlook' report by Quadrant Knowledge Solutions, NAC manages and controls access of devices and users to corporate networks based on policies, including endpoint configuration, authentication and user’s identity. NAC technologies have evolved significantly from device access authorisation, BYOD and guest management functions to more granular endpoint visibility, access and security capabilities that support robust policies driven by mobility, cloud and virtualisation trends.
Modern NAC technology includes functionality to support granular network segmentation, user behavior monitoring, enhanced visibility, and security automation and orchestration capability for automated threat detection and response. The published report provides an overview of the market including NAC capabilities, technology, drivers, adoption trends and competitive insights.
IoT proliferation
IoT proliferation and the convergence of IT/OT networks is expanding the enterprise attack surface"“IoT proliferation and the convergence of IT/OT networks is expanding the enterprise attack surface. With endpoint, BYOD and IoT security risks, organisations are taking advantage of the operational visibility and threat mitigation capabilities of next generation NAC solutions,” said Piyush Dewangan, industry research manager at Quadrant Knowledge Solutions. “Pulse Secure has received strong ratings for its sophisticated technology platform, competitive differentiation, scalability, technology vision and overall customer impact.”
The report cites that Cisco, ForeScout Technologies, and Pulse Secure are the top performers and technology leaders in the global NAC market. These companies provide comprehensive NAC solutions targeting large enterprise organisations, improving their network visibility and granular policy implementation.
Pulse Policy Secure
Among the capabilities highlighted in the report that earned Pulse Policy Secure (NAC) a technical leadership ranking, the most distinguished are:
- Integrated visibility, BYOD and IoT security and Zero Trust enforcement capabilities
- Easy path to NAC, starting with rich network device profiling, inventory and guest management
- Dynamic identification, classification, monitoring and reporting of managed and unmanaged endpoint and IoT devices
- Agent and agentless options for pre- and post-admission control, supporting an existing 802.1x supplicant/agent, or by employing agentless multi-factor device discovery and verification
- Automated or self-service provisioning of guest, BYOD and IoT devices
- Advanced User Enhanced Behavior Analytics (UEBA) further detects anomalous user, endpoint and IoT device activity
- Integration with leading networking and security tools, and automated threat response
- Data center or cloud administration of multiple distributed PPS appliances; each appliance can control up to 50,000 devices to scale to over a million devices per network
- Integration with leading networking and security tools, and automated threat response
- Common NAC/VPN Client, policy engine and system management for streamlined deployment, unified visibility and consistent access control for data center and hybrid IT
Expanding enterprise NAC platform
Pulse Secure continues to experience growth in its enterprise NAC platform with sales through partners to existing customers"
“Pulse Secure continues to experience growth in its enterprise NAC platform with sales through partners to existing customers, as well as to organisations investing in first-time NAC deployments and those replacing their current solutions,” said Scott Gordon, vice president of marketing at Pulse Secure. “With our unique means to offer a simple, unified NAC and VPN solution, we allow enterprises to gain essential intelligence, compliance and protection for remote, cloud and data center access. We are honoured to receive this NAC market distinction as technology leader.”
The 'NAC Market Outlook' report earmarks that the global NAC market is expected to increase significantly in the next five to six years. NAC is increasingly becoming mature and accepted as a key technology to improve an organisation's overall security defenses. Both large and mid-sized organisations are looking at full-scale deployments and extending NAC security to a greater number of devices and endpoints.
Adopting security technologies
Traditionally, the adoption of security technologies is primarily driven by compliance to broader global regulations. In the global market, banking & financial services, education, government and healthcare sectors are the primary users of NAC solutions. However, organisations from several industry verticals are increasingly focusing on improving their security measures to enhance overall security. IT/OT convergence has resulted in increased exposure to cyberthreats to the industrial environment, and NAC vendors are expanding their capabilities to support IT/OT convergence.
