Cloud RADIUS against ISE, ClearPass, NPS and FreeRADIUS
ISE and ClearPass are appliances to buy, license and patch. NPS and FreeRADIUS work until the server needs patching, the certificate authority needs renewing or a region goes down. Purple runs it all for you on the largest cloud RADIUS in the world, and moving is usually a weekend exercise. An appliance you patch, or a service you point at.
- 99.9% RADIUS uptime SLA
- Managed PKI
- Migration usually a weekend
Purple cloud RADIUS against running your own
| Purple cloud RADIUS | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUS | |
|---|---|---|
| Uptime | Purple cloud RADIUS99.9% RADIUS uptime SLA on a 99.999% uptime platform, with multi-region failover in the UK, EU and US. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSAs good as the servers, failover and people you provide. |
| Certificates | Purple cloud RADIUSManaged PKI issues and auto-renews every certificate, delivered by your MDM over SCEP. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSYou run the certificate authority and track every renewal. |
| Patching | Purple cloud RADIUSNothing to patch. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSServers and appliances to patch and back up. |
| Identity | Purple cloud RADIUSEntra ID, Okta and Google Workspace over SAML and SCIM; group membership drives the VLAN. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSDirectory integration you build and maintain. |
| Device compliance | Purple cloud RADIUSCompliance-gated join with Conditional Access, device posture and MDM enrollment state, from Microsoft Intune, Jamf Pro, JumpCloud, Kandji, Hexnode, Iru and Addigy. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSPosture profiling on an appliance you license, size and patch, or none at all on NPS and FreeRADIUS. |
| Scale | Purple cloud RADIUSThe largest cloud RADIUS in the world: 500 million logins a year at 80,000+ venues in 90 countries. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSAs far as the boxes you buy, rack and patch will stretch. |
| Networks covered | Purple cloud RADIUSOpen, secure and xPSK on one platform, with one authentication log. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUS802.1X only; the captive portal and per-device keys live elsewhere. |
| Pricing | Purple cloud RADIUSPer access point per year, no per-device or per-authentication meter. | ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUSLicenses, hardware and the time of the people who run it. |
FAQ
Common questions
How long does moving off ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUS take?
Usually a weekend: connect your directory, point the access points at Purple cloud RADIUS, and retire the old server or appliance. We map your policies with you from your export.
We use ISE or ClearPass for posture. Do we lose that?
No. Compliance state from your MDM feeds Conditional Access, so a device that fails a rule is refused at authentication, and device posture and MDM enrollment state land in the authentication log.
We just renewed ISE or ClearPass. Is it too late?
No. Renew now, migrate later. Plan the move with us while the contract runs, and cut over to Purple cloud RADIUS when it ends.
We have hundreds of ClearPass policies and years of profiling. Is that really a weekend?
Yes, usually a weekend. Send us the export and a Purple engineer maps every policy to a group, a VLAN and a RADIUS attribute with you before the weekend arrives.
Where does eduroam fit?
Beside the three, as its own SSID. In education, eduroam makes it four. Open, secure and xPSK carry your visitors, staff, halls and devices, and eduroam keeps doing its roaming job.
Plan your RADIUS cutover
Send us your current setup. We map every policy and plan the move off ISE, ClearPass, NPS or FreeRADIUS with you. All in a 45-minute design session.
- Get your three-SSID plan in 45 minutesTell us what runs on your WiFi today, and a Purple network engineer maps it with you.
- Map your SSIDs onto threeOpen, secure and xPSK, on the access points you already own. You leave with the plan.
- Prove it on one site firstJudge the result on tickets and audit evidence, then roll out.
Your design session
45 minutes. Your estate. A plan you keep.
Led by a Purple network engineer. No slides. You keep the plan.