Our History

ENDFORCE solutions ensure every endpoint accessing your corporate network is compliant with your security policy.

Ensuring the security of enterprise network resources is not simple. Protecting your network from malware, verifying that users are not overriding corporate protection schemes, and providing the needed network access by employees, customers, and partners requires significant expertise in security, networking, and systems management. With expertise in software development for network access and policy management of large-scale, global networks, the ENDFORCE team provides innovative solutions to these problems.

ENDFORCE was formed in 1999 with strong financial backing from some of the largest technology venture capital firms. With engineering experience in developing software to manage some of the world’s largest IP and electronic commerce networks, the ENDFORCE team positioned itself to successfully develop secure network access control solutions. The team’s expertise in policy management systems has enabled ENDFORCE to leverage its initial focus on simplifying the management of complex, large scale IP networks into endpoint security compliance enforcement.

Service providers used the software from ENDFORCE, then known as SmartPipes, to design, configure, and manage IPSec-based virtual private networks - one of which, at over 13,500 sites, is the largest VPN ever built and managed by a service provider. Building on this success, ENDFORCE created remote access policy management software which enabled service providers to market scalable and reliable secure remote access solutions. Today, major service providers use the ENDFORCE remote access policy management software to conduct policy compliance checks at a rate of over 120 million per year.

"We have extensive software development experience in network control, policy management, and secure transactions that give us a great background for developing secure network access control and security policy management solutions."

Bill Emerick, ENDFORCE Founder and CTO

In 2004, ENDFORCE released the initial version of ENDFORCE Enterprise. This solution brought the existing technology and experience in policy management and network access control to large-scale enterprises. The ENDFORCE team understood that the ENDFORCE solution must work with the myriad of security applications, authentication methods, operating systems, network gateways, and LAN switches already present in the typical enterprise network. Additionally, the solution must effectively quarantine non-compliant devices (both managed and unmanaged) by either allowing remediation or excluding network access. To do this successfully, the solution needed to participate in the network authentication process using industry standards such as RADIUS, 802.1x port-based authentication, and DHCP. ENDFORCE recognized the benefits of leveraging existing enterprise network investments and industry standards. As a result, ENDFORCE Enterprise was developed to work in heterogeneous environments and was engineered to be compatible with industry endpoint security initiatives. ENDFORCE is actively involved in leading groups that are shaping open industry standards and influencing product development. Members of our Engineering team are fluent in today’s various protocols and participate as authors and contributors to standards bodies and industry initiatives including the Trusted Computing Group’s Trusted Network Connect Sub-Group (TCG/TNC), Cisco’s Network Admission Control (NAC) Initiative, Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP), Juniper’s Endpoint Defense Initiative (JEDI) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

"Supporting industry standardization has always been a driver at ENDFORCE because of our focus on delivering flexible, easy-to-use, standards-based solutions that work in heterogeneous large-scale environments."

Mark Anthony Beadles, ENDFORCE Chief Architect and specification editor for TCG/TNC

ENDFORCE used its technical expertise to build a single, centralized console for managing all endpoints. The solution consists of shrink-wrapped server software and an intelligent, configurable agent. ENDFORCE Enterprise enables the definition and control of endpoint policies by user group, and it features an on-board reporting engine and audit repository. These features eliminate the need for third-party reporting and analysis tools. Moreover, ENDFORCE Enterprise enables authorization of user access to corporate resources within the context of their organizational role, access method, machine health and known responses to vulnerabilities. This technology approach was christened Context Aware Authorization (CONTEXT). ENDFORCE Enterprise has continued to be enhanced further extending the industry leading functionality and usability.

In 2006, ENDFORCE released ENDFORCE Informant. This companion product to Enterprise added the capability to specifically detect and alert unknown and potential malicious endpoints that can’t be controlled through network enforcement mechanisms. By using ENDFORCE Informant in concert with ENDFORCE Enterprise, enterprises have 100% knowledge of endpoints connecting to the network.

ENDFORCE’s technical heritage and focus on customer solutions insures that our customers continue to have innovative, easy-to-use, scalable network access control solutions to protect their networks and manage their endpoint security compliance. Customers who select ENDFORCE can be assured that they have a choice in network infrastructure and security applications, and they will continue to have this choice in the future. To learn more information, contact an ENDFORCE sales representative at 1-866-777-2537.