Avenda Systems Positioned in the "Visionaries" Quadrant of the Magic Quadrant for Network Access Control (NAC)

Online, July 19, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Avenda Systems, the innovation leader in identity-based network access security, today announced it has been positioned by Gartner, Inc., in the Visionaries quadrant of the 2010 Magic Quadrant for Network Access Control report. [1]

Avenda's placement in the Visionaries quadrant follows a strong review in a competitive bakeoff by Network World, where published results highlighted eTIPS' strengths, including its simplicity, ease of use, and demonstrated well-balanced NAC features. Trends that have driven Avenda's and NAC's growth over the past year include:

• The need for greater visibility of users, devices and associated network interaction
• New requirements for differentiated employee access and endpoint device authentication for compliance regulations
• Increased needs for policy and control of unmanaged endpoint devices; user owned laptops, iPhones, tablet PCs, etc.

According to the Gartner report, "We believe that NAC vendors that manage to grow in 2010 and beyond will be the ones that increase their capabilities for enterprises to safely allow unmanaged PCs and mobile devices to be used to meet business needs... Because employee-owned laptops or smartphones will typically not have corporate endpoint security software on them, stand-alone NAC capabilities will see higher demand...When evaluating NAC solutions, look for vendors that understand the consumerization trend and support, or have plans to support, policies for managing the non-Microsoft endpoints that will inevitably attempt to connect to your network." [1]

Avenda's placement in the Visionaries quadrant comes on the heels of a major release of Avenda's eTIPS identity-aware platform. This latest release includes a comprehensive, full-featured set of applications for employee/contractor and endpoint device authentication and authorization, guest access, and expanded support for today's newest computer and smartphone devices.

"We believe that our position in the Visionaries quadrant brings to light the success we have had in providing our customers with the most advanced and easily deployable solution for protecting their networks," said Krishna Prabhakar, CEO at Avenda Systems. "As we continuously strive to innovate and execute on our product roadmap and go-to-market strategy, we will further enhance our market position."

About the Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2010 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

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

Note 1 - Gartner Magic Quadrant for Network Access Control by Lawrence Orans, John Pescatore, July 2, 2010