Review: SpectraGuard Enterprise

For: A product with solid reporting and documentation
Against: Difficult to configure and a bit expensive
Verdict: A middle-of-the-road product with a fair bit of good functionality

It automatically identifies and prevents security risks and attacks by blocking all unauthorised access to rogue traffic without disruption to authorised wireless traffic.

This product is compatible with most third-party vendor’s WiFi access points, firewalls and VPNs. According to AirTight, a patented technology prevents all major categories of threat from compromising your network. The sensor prevents successful attacks against the infrastructure. SpectraGuard integrates with other enterprise management and reporting platforms such as ArcSight ESM, Cisco WLSE, Check Point Eventia Suite, as well as syslogs. This product can also generate compliance reports by producing security violation summaries for each section of the various regulations.

We found the product somewhat difficult to configure, partly due to a cluttered user interface. The system had difficulty recognising its own sensors, a problem we experienced with other products in this group test. Once in place, SpectraGuard recognised our rogue access point and reported it.

Airtight provides well laid-out documentation for administration and deployment. We especially liked the navigation bar explanation sheet, which helps to understand the product and the operation of the GUI. Other standouts are listings of global functions, administrator security score cards, user events and troubleshooting assistance for administrators. The information also makes good use of screenshots combined with easy-to-understand narratives, providing explanations of error messages and set-up banners.

Support programs are offered in three flavours: silver, gold, and platinum. These provide customers with an array of support functionality tailored to fit their corporate architectures.

The product costs £5,995 (A$12,948) for equipment and there is a per-user fee associated with SpectraGuard SAFE. Volume discounts are available. This is quite expensive, especially for large enterprises.

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