We primarily use the solution for network security.
Easy to scale, enforces policies well, and has responsive technical support
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
A lot of campuses use SafeConnect.
It gives us good visibility and enforces policies.
It helps enforce network security by scanning devices, making sure they have current and valid antivirus solutions with up-to-date antivirus definitions, and steers our end users by enforcing policy groups and steering them to the right access.
Technical support is responsive.
The stability is pretty good.
It is very easy to scale the product.
What needs improvement?
The solution would be much better if it offered self-service onboarding.
We'd like to have more granular visibility into the devices that are on the network.
It's a bit pricey as a product.
For how long have I used the solution?
SafeConnect has been around for a long time and they were purchased by OPSWAT. It's an NAC solution that we've had for probably about 12 years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's been very stable for the most part.
It's been pretty reliable. At one time it was a hardware appliance, and now it's a cloud-hosted solution. The performance is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is no issue. You just have to pay for the licensing pack that pertains to your tier. Therefore, it's pretty quick to scale. It's pretty simple and straightforward.
How are customer service and support?
We've used technical support in the past. The response time is very good. We are very satisfied with the level of service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We currently have SafeConnect (or OPSWAT NAC) and we are looking to possibly move to another platform.
How was the initial setup?
I wasn't a part of the solution's initial setup. The system was already in place when I got here. I've been at this company for ten years and it was in place when I got here, so we haven't switched it yet. However, now we feel we need something that's a little more intelligent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is a bit expensive. It could offer better pricing.
For our tier group, for one year, the cost is probably around $10,000 for the license. If you do multi-year, you could get two years, and you could get it for about $8,000 per year. If you do three years, you get it around $7,000 a year. The longer the license, the better the pricing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I'm looking at ClearPass since we have Aruba Wi-Fi on campus and also for the FortiNAC solution as we have Fortinet firewalls. We're looking to upgrade it to something a little more intuitive, something a little smarter, like ClearPass or FortiNAC.
We couldn't get the pricing we were looking for with FortiNAC or ClearPass, and therefore, we just renewed the license for our SafeConnect for OPSWAT. As of right now, the project is off the table until next year, around this time.
What other advice do I have?
We're just a customer and an end-user.
The solution was purchased by OPSWAT. It's now referred to as OPSWOT.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten overall. We've been happy with it, however, it's time to maybe look at other options.
