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Bradford Networks has unveiled a new version of its Network Sentry solution designed to help organizations of all sizes secure their networks through multiple deployment options, including on VMware.

Officials with Bradford said that Network Sentry is the first network security offering that automatically identifies and profiles all devices and all users on a network, providing complete visibility and control.

Company officials said that the enhancements in the latest release of Network Sentry include-Support for VMware deployment, giving customers deployment options, including hardware appliance, VMware virtualized software environments and managed service through Bradford's extensive channel partner ecosystem; Out-of-the-box integration with additional complementary, third-party technologies including Sourcefire and ArcSight (News - Alert) and a newly designed user interface that's not only easier to navigate, but also includes the ability to create custom views for different types of users, and new role-based dashboards among other such things.

Bryant University is one of several organizations that beta tested Network Sentry 5.0.

"Bryant's deployments of VMware and Bradford's Network Sentry are crucial to managing our infrastructure costs and helping us secure a constantly evolving IT environment," said Jon Domen, IT network analyst at Bryant University, in a statement.

Domen said that Bradford's new ability to run in a virtualized environment fits perfectly into the university’s strategy. 

He said that the other new features in Network Sentry -- like agentless scanning and the new host view -- build nicely on Bradford's already-proven ability to flawlessly secure the university’s networks.

Company officials claimed that channel partner reaction to Network Sentry's new virtualized architecture has been extremely positive.

One is Atrion (News - Alert) Networking Corporation, a provider of Information Technology and managed services.

Mark Moretti, sales director at Atrion, said that this new version of Network Sentry is great news for Atrion customers who have already vested in VMware -- a segment that is growing significantly each quarter.

“It also enables us to enhance some of our own service offerings, such as vulnerability assessments, by providing them in a virtualized environment rather than with an on-site, physical appliance”, said Moretti.

He said that the model reduces the company’s costs, allows to provide better value to the customers, and also enables to add some new revenue-producing services.

“We're really excited about taking this out to our customer base,"said Moretti.

Frank Andrus, CTO of Bradford Networks (News - Alert) said that 10 years ago, network infrastructures were fairly homogenous. Not anymore -- that is why network security tools that come with infrastructure buys are no longer able to cover all the bases, explained Andrus.

"Network Sentry has been proven to integrate with all the major infrastructure components – it's very easy to roll out Network Sentry in an existing environment, particularly in virtualized settings," he said.