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South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services Deploys Aerohive Wireless LAN

Aerohive and Juniper Networks Team to Provide Distributed Wi-Fi and Access Control Solution Highlighted Links

Aerohive Networks Santa Clara -(Marketwire) - Aerohive Networks, creators of the award-winning cooperative control wireless LAN (WLAN) architecture, today announced that the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services has deployed equipment from Aerohive and Juniper Networks to provide a secure, enterprise-wide 802.11n wireless LAN solution to the Department’s 680 parole agents and staff. Employees of other government agencies, including Federal Probation and Vocational Rehabilitation, and law enforcement personnel will also access the network as guests. The Aerohive and Juniper equipment has been deployed at the Department’s central site in Columbia, and it will be extended to cover 53 additional offices and 46 courtrooms around the state. More information about Aerohive is available at www.aerohive.com, and an in-depth case study of the Department’s Aerohive and Juniper deployment is available at http://www.aerohive.com/resources/casestudy/SCDPPPS.html.

Advantages of Cooperative Wireless LAN

The Department required a wireless LAN that was scalable, reliable, secure, and easy to manage. It chose an Aerohive solution over controller-based alternatives because of the advantages that Aerohive’s cooperative wireless LAN architecture provides in these areas. Aerohive’s cooperative architecture requires no network controllers or overlay networks. Instead, software in the Aerohive access points (HiveAPs) enables them to self-organize into groups called hives. The result is a secure, multi-service wireless LAN infrastructure that is able to support a vast array of wireless devices, application types, and service levels, with faster client performance, wire-like resilience, and lower capital and operational costs.

Competing alternatives required tunneling back to a centralized controller in Columbia, which would scale poorly, and also posed reliability and availability issues. For example, if the central site went down, or the link to any local office failed, the local LAN would also be down. In addition, backhauling all network traffic to Columbia would degrade the network’s performance.

“I appreciated the vision of how the Aerohive access points functioned, the intelligence they had, even when they were disconnected,” said David O’Berry, director, IT Systems and Services, South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services. “Most other products I looked at got pretty dumb when they lost connectivity with the controller. The Aerohive model scaled very well. From a scalability and resiliency perspective, I felt that Aerohive was the best choice.”

Teaming with Juniper Networks for a Comprehensive Security Solution

The Department selected Aerohive as part of a comprehensive solution that also included Juniper Networks Unified Access Control (UAC), Juniper’s dynamic, comprehensive solution for network access control (NAC). It delivers granular access control that combines user identity, device security state, and location information for session-specific access policy by user. HiveAPs provide state-of-the-art security, with features including 802.11i (WPA2), wireless IDS, 802.1X authentication, rogue detection, integrated stateful firewall, and guest access control, as well as integration with a broad range of directory systems. Together with Juniper, Aerohive provides the Department with a best-in-class, shared wireless environment that allows for secure employee mobility and third-party network access.

“Because Juniper’s UAC is based on open standards, it ensures interoperability with Aerohive wireless LANs, providing a secure, whole-enterprise wireless solution for the Department,” said Rich Campagna, senior product line manager, Access Solutions, Juniper Networks. “We are pleased to provide the Department with greater visibility and management capabilities, allowing for granular assessment of its various users across a distributed environment, where they can securely and assuredly bring in the necessary services to better serve the state and its citizens.”

Easy Deployment and Management with HiveManager

The Department used Aerohive’s HiveManager network management system (NMS) to provision the new HiveAPs. Its graphical user interface makes it easy to establish and adjust wireless network settings and security policies, eliminating the complexities associated with most wireless deployments. When new HiveAPs are connected to the network, the HiveManager automatically discovers them and transparently pushes configuration settings and policies to them for a seamless plug-and-play installation. HiveManager also provides monitoring capabilities through a single, easy-to-use console.

“Highly distributed organizations like the South Carolina Department of Probation, Parole, and Pardon Services benefit greatly from Aerohive’s cost-effective, controller-less branch office wireless LAN solutions,” said David Flynn, chief executive officer, Aerohive Networks. “Aerohive also provides state-of-the-art wireless security and seamless integration with best-in-class access control solutions, such as Juniper’s UAC.”

About Aerohive Networks
Aerohive unleashes the potential of enterprise Wi-Fi, enabling customers to stop buying copper, to move applications to the air, and to maximize workforce productivity. The company’s award-winning cooperative control architecture eliminates costly controllers, saving money and providing unprecedented resiliency, up to 10X better application performance, and an opportunity to start small and expand without limitations. Aerohive was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. The company’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Northern Light Venture Capital. For more information, please visit www.aerohive.com or call 408-988-9918.

Juniper Networks, JUNOS, and the Juniper Networks logo are registered trademarks of Juniper Networks, Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service marks are the property of their respective owners.

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