Comparing Aruba Central to Portnox Cloud

Can Aruba Central’s NAC features be used in truly multi-vendor environments?

Technically yes, but practically limited. Aruba Central with ClearPass offers some level of third-party integration through RADIUS and SNMP, but advanced features like dynamic segmentation, CoA, and context-aware policy enforcement often require Aruba-specific infrastructure to function properly. Many of the automated actions and deep integrations are only available when using Aruba switches, gateways, and APs. In mixed-vendor environments, you’re back to manual configurations, CLI scripting, or limited visibility, which defeats the promise of automation and centralization.

Portnox is vendor-agnostic by design. Whether your environment includes Cisco, Juniper, Meraki, Ubiquiti, or legacy switches, Portnox applies the same full-featured NAC policy stack—dynamically, consistently, and without compromise. It doesn’t play favorites with infrastructure. That means fewer vendor lock-in worries, no integration workarounds, and a more predictable security model in multi-vendor environments.

Multi-Vendor Support

Is Aruba Central’s NAC fully cloud-native, or is it still tied to ClearPass hardware and VMs?

It’s more cloud-managed than cloud-native. Aruba Central provides a cloud UI for visibility and configuration management, but much of ClearPass’s enforcement still relies on on-prem ClearPass Policy Manager appliances or virtual machines. This hybrid model means you still need to deploy and maintain infrastructure—possibly at every site—to handle authentication traffic, device profiling, and policy enforcement. As a result, IT still carries the burden of patching, scaling, HA planning, and hardware refresh cycles.

Portnox is a true SaaS product. There’s nothing to deploy or maintain—no appliances, VMs, or proxies. All functionality, including RADIUS, posture checks, device visibility, and policy enforcement, happens in the cloud. Updates are automatic. Scaling is effortless. It’s plug-and-play security, ideal for lean teams or large organizations looking to get out of the infrastructure management business.

Deployment Model

How well does Aruba handle scalability across branch offices and remote workers?

Aruba can scale, but with strings attached. For large enterprises already standardized on Aruba, scaling across branch offices is manageable—assuming you’re willing to deploy Aruba gear at each site and manage ClearPass nodes to handle local policy decisions. Remote access NAC enforcement remains complex, often requiring VPN tunnels, special configurations, or additional licensing. And performance can become a concern when relying on centralized enforcement for globally distributed endpoints.

Portnox offers zero-footprint scalability. Every policy and enforcement capability is delivered from the cloud—no hardware dependencies, no local controllers. Whether you have one site or a hundred, remote employees or BYOD contractors, Portnox enforces access policies consistently and in real time. Users don’t need to be on a VPN, and IT doesn’t need to “bolt on” extra infrastructure as the network expands.

Scalability & Remote Access

How modern is Aruba’s approach to device posture and BYOD policy enforcement?

ClearPass is still rooted in legacy paradigms. While Aruba offers endpoint profiling, onboarding, and guest access functionality, these features typically require multiple modules, extensive configuration, and coordination with Mobility Controllers. Device risk and posture evaluation are relatively basic and lack real-time enforcement. BYOD workflows tend to be more complex and dependent on Aruba gear to work smoothly—making them less useful in diverse environments with unmanaged or transient devices.

Portnox delivers identity- and risk-aware access control out of the box. It continuously evaluates posture—including OS versions, AV status, disk encryption, and more—whether the device is corporate-managed or personal. It doesn’t just admit a device once and forget about it; it continuously enforces compliance. Portnox also offers simple onboarding flows and robust device fingerprinting without requiring agents—though optional agents are available for deeper posture visibility. The result? Stronger security posture, less operational friction.

Device Posture, BYOD, & Identity Awareness