ZEN for the Endpoint

Novell has added endpoint security management to its security management portfolio, the company announced today at the Burton Group Catalyst Conference in San Francisco.

The new ZENworks Endpoint Security Management is the result of an OEM agreement with Senforce Technologies for its recently released Senforce Endpoint Security Suite 3.5.

"It natively integrates with both eDirectory and Active Directory to provide active policy enforcement," says Richard Whitehead, director of product marketing for systems resource management at Novell, which also sells security management tools for patch, identity, asset, and access management.

"ZENworks Endpoint Security Management compliments all of these solutions by providing policy enforcement and monitoring at the endpoint," Whitehead says. "It addresses the growing risks associated with ports, wireless access, and unencrypted data."

The software automatically adjusts security controls based on the user's location, so if a mobile user travels outside the firewall or hops onto a wireless connection outside the company, his laptop carries with it the appropriate security policies and measures. Tim Cranny, senior security architect for Senforce, describes the endpoint management software as more of a "bodyguard" for the endpoint, actively enforcing security policies. (See USBs' Giant Sucking Sound.)

Cranny says the Senforce-Novell OEM deal for the endpoint management software is also another example of how security and network management are converging. "You can't have management without security," he says. "And you can't talk security if you're not dealing with managing patch levels and inventory."

The product includes a personal firewall, encryption for data on the machine as well as for removable media, USB security, application control, port control, and alerts monitoring features.

Meanwhile, Novell also announced the Secure Desktop Solution, a combination of ZENWorks Endpoint Security Management with its existing ZENWorks Asset Management and ZENWorks Patch Management products.

ZENWorks Endpoint Security Management -- which is now available -- is priced at $69 per device, or for $120 list price if purchased as part of the Secure Desktop Solution.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading