The Challenge
A medical device manufacturer with over 1,000 employees had outgrown Microsoft Network Policy Server (NPS). The company needed a RADIUS solution that could connect directly to its existing Microsoft stack and solve these issues:
- The on-premises RADIUS solution lacked native integration with Microsoft Entra ID and Intune, leaving gaps in identity-based access control.
- Manual configuration kept the IT team tethered to legacy infrastructure while the rest of the organization moved to cloud-based tools.
- The complexity of managing enrollment policies, certificate templates, trusted root distribution, and Wi-Fi profile assignments for both Windows and macOS created significant overhead for SCEP delivery via Intune.
The company needed to upgrade the legacy system to include network access controls that support compliance as per healthcare regulatory requirements. Replacing shared credentials with identity-backed certificates addressed this.
The Solution
The team evaluated several options and selected SecureW2 based on cloud-native architecture, Microsoft integration depth, and the ability to validate the full enrollment and authentication path during a proof-of-concept (POC) session.
The POC successfully validated the entire stack, leading to a full deployment. JoinNow Cloud RADIUS replaced Microsoft NPS as the primary RADIUS infrastructure, fully cloud-hosted with no on-premises server requirements.
The initial rollout covered Windows devices. The SecureW2 implementation team configured the setup – enrollment policies, certificate templates, and Intune SCEP profiles. The company’s IT administrator then transitioned certificate policies from device-based to user-based enrollment, migrating users seamlessly individually into the new policy structure for tighter identity binding.
The Results
- Replaced NPS and on-premises RADIUS infrastructure with a cloud-native authentication model
- Swapped in user-based certificate policies to replace device-based enrollment for stronger identity-backed access control
- Enrolled 1,400+ Windows devices with certificate-based 802.1X authentication across the managed fleet
- Initiated a macOS expansion to cover the full 1500+ Apple fleet
The company is building toward a unified authentication model across both operating systems. What started as an NPS replacement has become the foundation for identity-driven network access across the entire organization.