Enterasys Mobile IAM Now Supports Apple Bonjour at a Scale Much Greater than Competitive Gateway-Based Solutions

ANDOVER, Mass., Oct. 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Enterasys Networks, a Siemens Enterprise Communications Company, today announced the availability of its Bonjour Traffic Management solution, available with Mobile IAM, designed to securely and efficiency support the deployment of Apple devices across large enterprise networks. In addition, Enterasys has validated support for iPhone 5 with Mobile IAM for secure BYOD deployments of the new smartphone.

Apple devices add additional burden on the network and IT staff because of their implementation of Bonjour, a "zero configuration networking" solution from Apple. Bonjour enables devices to automatically discover each other without the need to enter IP addresses or configure DNS servers.  However, Bonjour generates heavy amounts of multicast traffic over large networks with many Apple clients and services. Also, Bonjour traffic is sent only to local subnets or VLANs and therefore it is not routable. This means Bonjour devices, like printers, in one VLAN cannot be used by client devices in another VLAN.

"The BYOD movement has brought on an explosive proliferation of smart devices into the enterprise environment," said Dan Dulac, vice president of solutions engineering, Enterasys Networks. "With the recent release of the iPhone 5, it is expected that the growth of Apple products will only accelerate into the enterprise. With our Bonjour Traffic Management solution, we are solving a pressing problem for medium to large enterprises which are looking for a way to leverage Bonjour to deploy Apple devices across a large network."

The Enterasys Bonjour Traffic Management Solution is based on Enterasys Mobile IAM and the distributed intelligence that is embedded in Enterasys switches and access points. Built upon the OneFabric architecture, the solution provides centralized provisioning and distributed enforcement of role-based policies and is able to address Bonjour and other multicast discovery services, such as Microsoft UPnP, enabling these services to be "routable" across VLAN's in large network environments.  The Enterasys solution dynamically creates a "Bonjour" domain to contain Bonjour traffic based on user role, device and location. Rather than replicate traffic on all VLAN's, as is common with competitive gateway solutions, Enterasys reduces the amount of multicast messages to only devices that require the service.

"As BYOD spreads far and wide in the market, enterprises are taking advantage of discovery protocols, such as Bonjour, which were not designed with large network settings in mind," said Craig Mathias, a principal with the wireless and mobile advisory firm Farpoint Group. "Enterasys is providing a simple solution that makes these protocols routable over large networks, and this in turn will result in BYOD deployments being that much more attractive – and effective – for organizations everywhere."

Resources:

• Enterasys Social Media newsroom
• Enterasys Wireless
• Enterasys webinar: "The impact of Apple products in the enterprise"

About Enterasys Networks and Siemens Enterprise Communications 
Siemens Enterprise Communications is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based unified communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. This award-winning "Open Communications" approach enables organizations to improve productivity and reduce costs through easy-to-deploy solutions that work within existing IT environments, delivering operational efficiencies. It is the foundation for the company's OpenPath® commitment that enables customers to mitigate risk and cost-effectively adopt unified communications. Jointly owned by The Gores Group and Siemens AG, Siemens Enterprise Communications includes Cycos and Enterasys Networks. For more information about Siemens Enterprise Communications or Enterasys please visit www.siemens-enterprise.com or www.enterasys.com.

SOURCE Enterasys Networks, Inc.