Avenda Systems Named "Cool Vendor" in Identity and Access Management by Leading Analyst Firm

Online, April 21, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Santa Clara, Calif. - Apr. 21, 2010 - Avenda Systems, the innovation leader in identity-aware network access security, today announced that it has been included in the list of "Cool Vendors" in the Cool Vendors in Identity and Access Management, 2010 report by Gartner, Inc. (Lawrence Orans, et al, April 14, 2010).

According to the Gartner, Inc. report, "Identity and access management (IAM) technologies continue to change rapidly in response to evolving business needs - including increasingly rigorous regulatory and other compliance requirements - and threats. Chief information security officers (CISOs), and other security and IAM decision makers, need to familiarize themselves with the emerging technologies and IAM approaches presented by Gartner's Cool Vendors and other leading-edge providers."1

Avenda's flagship offering is a policy server used in heterogeneous environments to implement network access control (NAC). In recognition of this market opportunity, Avenda has delivered the appliance- and virtual-machine-based enterprise Trust & Identity Policy System (eTIPS) policy server, as well as a set of complementary solutions for authenticating devices or users to enterprise networks. With Avenda, all identity-based, endpoint, and health related policies are created via reusable policy elements, which enable a common set of authentication and authorization policies across all access methods (wireless and wired LAN or VPN).

"We consider our inclusion in the Cool Vendor report by Gartner confirmation of a shift in the NAC market," said Krishna Prabhakar, CEO of Avenda Systems. "By developing our platform to satisfy identity and device authentication, in addition to traditional NAC endpoint health, it is our belief that Gartner's recognition is in lockstep with our roadmap, customer requirements, and how access control should be deployed."

About Gartner's Cool Vendors Selection Process
Gartner's listing does not constitute an exhaustive list of vendors in any given technology area, but rather is designed to highlight interesting, new and innovative vendors, products and services. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness of a particular purpose. Gartner defines a cool vendor as a company that offers technologies or solutions that are: Innovative, enable users to do things they couldn't do before; Impactful, have, or will have, business impact (not just technology for the sake of technology); Intriguing, have caught Gartner's interest or curiosity in approximately the past six months.

About Avenda
Avenda Systems introduced the industry's first multi-function platform for network access security that breaks through past deployment barriers - complexity, compatibility, compliance and cost. Avenda's flagship eTIPS solution is a scalable AAA platform that utilizes identity-based policies for access control, endpoint health and device authorization for wired, wireless and VPN networks in multi-vendor environments. Further information: www.avendasys.com