Seattle-based Napera Networks has built a really interesting piece of hardware. The Napera N24 Appliance automatically enforces health and identity rules for up to 200 computers, preventing rogue or unpatched machines from accessing a corporate network in an uncontrolled fashion.
The device basically protects access points in conference rooms, sales offices and wireless networks from indiscriminate usage. Napera uses the Microsoft NAP (Network Access Protection) protocol to enforce a fully configurable set of health and safety rules. Logging and monitoring features provide auditing and other historical information.
At this point you are probably thinking "Uh, Jeff, you work for Amazon.com and you usually talk about software on this blog. What's going on here?"
So here’s where it gets really cool. The Napera N24 appliance securely stores
all of its long-term logging and auditing data in Amazon S3. This way,
there’s no limit to how much can be logged or how long it is retained, unlike
a more traditional design which would retain some logs within the appliance
or require local servers. Further, the administrative
interface (MyNapera.com) leverages Amazon EC2. Ultimately MyNapera.com will
be accessible remotely, making the Napera appliance a great solution for
a company with a number of geographically distributed field offices.
Enterprise solutions to this sort of problem are usually very complex
and expensive, requiring multiple servers. Using AWS has enabled Napera to
build a product for the budget of smaller companies that is incredibly easy
to use and quick to install.
Oh yeah, one last thing. The company is based in Mercer Island (near Seattle). Per their jobs page, they are looking for a web developer and some summer interns with CS or IT experience.
— Jeff;
