Aruba ClearPass
Aruba ClearPass is a comprehensive network access control solution providing secure visibility, policy enforcement, and automated device profiling across wired, wireless, and virtual private network infrastructures for your organization.
Forward Networks
Forward Networks provides a digital twin platform that models your entire network infrastructure to prevent outages, verify security policies, and automate complex change management tasks effectively.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | Aruba ClearPass | Forward Networks |
|---|---|---|
| Website | arubanetworks.com | forwardnetworks.com |
| Pricing Model | Custom | Custom |
| Starting Price | Custom Pricing | Custom Pricing |
| FREE Trial | ✘ No free trial | ✘ No free trial |
| Free Plan | ✘ No free plan | ✘ No free plan |
| Product Demo | ✓ Request demo here | ✓ Request demo here |
| Deployment | ||
| Integrations | ||
| Target Users | ||
| Target Industries | ||
| Customer Count | 0 | 0 |
| Founded Year | 2002 | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Santa Clara, USA | Santa Clara, USA |
Overview
Aruba ClearPass
Aruba ClearPass gives you complete control over who and what connects to your network. You can automatically identify every device—from smartphones and laptops to specialized IoT hardware—and apply precise security policies based on user roles or device types. This ensures that only authorized users access sensitive data while guest users remain safely isolated.
You can simplify your security operations by replacing manual configuration with automated workflows. The platform works across any vendor's networking hardware, allowing you to maintain consistent security standards without being locked into specific brands. Whether you are managing a single office or a global enterprise, you can monitor connection health and remediate non-compliant devices in real-time to prevent potential breaches.
Forward Networks
Forward Networks provides a mathematical model of your entire network, creating a functional digital twin that spans on-premises, cloud, and hybrid environments. You can visualize every possible traffic path and verify that your network is behaving exactly as intended. By analyzing your network's state against your specific business policies, the platform identifies misconfigurations and security gaps before they cause outages or breaches.
You can use the platform to perform 'what-if' analysis, allowing you to test changes in the digital twin before deploying them to production. This proactive approach eliminates manual troubleshooting and reduces the risk of human error. Whether you are managing complex data centers or sprawling multi-cloud deployments, you gain a single source of truth that simplifies audits and accelerates digital transformation initiatives.
Overview
Aruba ClearPass Features
- Device Profiling Identify and categorize every device on your network automatically so you can see exactly what is connecting in real-time.
- Guest Access Management Create secure portals for visitors and contractors to access the internet without compromising your internal corporate data or systems.
- Role-Based Access Control Assign specific permissions to users based on their job function to ensure they only access the resources they actually need.
- Automated Remediation Quarantine unhealthy or non-compliant devices automatically and provide clear instructions to users on how to fix security issues.
- Onboard Configuration Enable your employees to securely configure their own personal devices for network use through a simple, automated self-service portal.
- Security Exchange Share contextual data with your firewalls and endpoint security tools to create a coordinated defense across your entire infrastructure.
Forward Networks Features
- Network Digital Twin. Create a vendor-agnostic mathematical model of your entire network to visualize paths across all devices and cloud instances.
- Path Analysis. Search for any traffic path between two points to see exactly how packets are handled by every hop.
- Intent Verification. Define your network policies and receive instant alerts if a configuration change violates your security or connectivity rules.
- Change Modeling. Predict the impact of planned changes by testing them against the digital twin before touching your production environment.
- Security Posture Blast. Visualize the potential reach of a compromised host to identify and close security holes in your segmentation strategy.
- Automated Documentation. Generate up-to-date network diagrams and configuration state reports automatically for simplified compliance audits and troubleshooting.
Pricing Comparison
Aruba ClearPass Pricing
Forward Networks Pricing
Pros & Cons
Aruba ClearPass
Pros
- Unmatched visibility into IoT and unmanaged devices
- Works seamlessly across multi-vendor networking hardware
- Highly granular policy creation for complex environments
- Reliable performance in high-density enterprise deployments
Cons
- Initial setup and configuration require specialized expertise
- Interface can feel overwhelming for novice administrators
- Licensing structure is complex and difficult to track
Forward Networks
Pros
- Unmatched visibility into complex multi-vendor network environments
- Drastically reduces time spent on manual troubleshooting
- Simplifies complex compliance audits with automated verification
- Prevents costly outages by catching errors before deployment
Cons
- Initial data collection setup requires significant time
- High price point targets large enterprise budgets
- Requires consistent data snapshots for maximum accuracy