The Challenge
A leading cloud data platform relied on pre-shared keys (PSKs) for wireless access. That meant any compromised credential could grant network access to unauthorized devices. For an organization handling sensitive enterprise data workloads, this exposure threatened the company’s security posture at scale.
The IT team ran access points from multiple major vendors and used a separate vendor for VPN. Any authentication solution needed to work across this mixed environment without locking the team into a single hardware ecosystem. With thousands of corporate devices managed by a lean IT team, operating an in-house certificate provisioning system was not viable.
The organization also maintained a “single pane of glass” philosophy, where every SaaS vendor had to surface health metrics via APIs to a centralized ServiceNow dashboard. It was a critical requirement for the team to have operational transparency through API-accessible monitoring, which is why they were drawn to the SecureW2 JoinNow platform.
The Solution
Deploying the JoinNow platform successfully unified authentication in one place, while maintaining the company’s infrastructure across multiple major wireless vendors and a separate VPN provider. By tying certificate issuance directly to Okta identities, the organization eliminated the need for PSKs while maintaining a vendor-neutral hardware strategy.
What began as a 5,000-device rollout for Wi-Fi security rapidly evolved into a comprehensive identity project. The platform’s ability to handle automated enrollment for a lean IT group allowed the organization to more than double its license count without increasing administrative headcount. The organization is also actively deploying guest portal capabilities for visitor and contractor access.
The Results
- Eliminated Pre-Shared Key (PSK) Vulnerabilities: Replaced shared credentials with unique, identity-backed certificates for every device.
- Unified Wi-Fi and VPN Security: Standardized 802.1X EAP-TLS authentication across a multi-vendor global infrastructure.
- Operational Transparency: Seamlessly integrated into a ServiceNow-centric monitoring stack via API, meeting the high bar for enterprise SaaS observability.
For this major cloud data company, what started as a Wi-Fi security project now covers wireless, VPN, and guest access across 12,000+ endpoints.