Security Companies Form Alliance

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Seven leading security technology companies (Aruba Networks, Extreme Networks, Identity Engines, Infoblox, Symantec Corporation, TippingPoint, and Trapeze Networks) today announced the formation of the OpenSEA Alliance, a newly formed group dedicated to the development, promotion, and distribution of an open source 802.1X supplicant.. The seven companies are joined in this effort by JANET/UKERNA. JANET is the network dedicated to the needs of education and research in the UK. UKERNA (United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association) manages the operation and development of JANET on behalf of JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) for the UK Further and Higher Education Funding Councils.

The formation of the OpenSEA alliance was initiated, coordinated and promoted by Jon Oltsik, senior analyst at industry analyst firm the Enterprise Strategy Group to provide open source networking and security alternatives in order to accelerate technology adoption and enhance network security.

Oltsik comments: “In a network-connected world challenged by ever-growing sophisticated security threats, open source solutions provide an avenue for standards-based implementation and rapid technology adoption. In this way, I believe that open source efforts like the OpenSEA Alliance can lead to security and privacy advances that benefit society at large as well as individual organizations and users.”

The name OpenSEA stands for “Open Secure Edge Access” and reflects the group’s focus on open source solutions for networking and security. In its initial project, the OpenSEA Alliance plans to develop a robust cross-platform open source 802.1X supplicant. The goal of the group is to deliver an open source 802.1X supplicant that models the popular Firefox web browser in that it will be extremely reliable, widely distributed, and readily available.

Aruba Wireless Networks

Extreme Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: EXTR)

Identity Engines Inc.

Infoblox Inc.

Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC)

TippingPoint Technologies Inc.

Trapeze Networks Inc.