ControlGuard Endpoint Access Manager seeks to protect corporation data by providing policy-based controls for the types of devices and media interfaces that can be used on client computers. Multiple devices and interfaces can be managed by the platform, including floppy drives, zip drives, modems, printers, memory sticks, parallel or serial port communications, USB communications, or FireWire communications, just to name a few.

The platform consists of a central server that communicates with distributed agents residing on the endpoint machines themselves. The agents can be deployed--directly from the server console to a specific or selected endpoints with a silent install, or dynamically to new endpoints when they are added to the network (customers may also utilize their own deployment methods, if desired)--as purely passive monitoring tools, or interactive tools with the ability to enforce administrator policies in regard to the usage of devices or media interfaces on the endpoint. The server is accessed remotely via the ControlGuard console, which displays the endpoint configurations (as communicated from the agents) including their connected devices and media interfaces. I/O activity on the endpoint is logged and displayed on the console. Agents receive policy information from the server, which can consist of monitoring instructions or the limitation of usage to specific actions on specific devices by specific users (the platform features integration with Active Directory and support for Novell eDirectory for the recognition of existing objects or group settings). Agents remain active when not connected to the network; and, according to the vendor, cannot be bypassed by the endpoint users.

Other features of the platform include the ability to define temporary or time-based access policies; support for hot-pluggable devices; LiveUpdate capabilities for the agent software; real-time notifications; automatic discovery of new endpoints on the network; and a reporting module for the presentation of both up-to-date and historical information. The latest product release features integrated support for Computer Associates' Unicenter and eTrust Command Center.

ControlGuard Enpoint Access Manager is available now. Base pricing is $5,000 for the server module + $50/agent; with a single server capable of scaling to support over 10,000 agents.

Contact ControlGuard for further information.