2018 – 2019
Pulse Secure
The distribution chapter's secure-access thread: Neoteris DNA, carried through five flags.
Pulse Secure entered this record from the distribution side: in the ScanSource year its secure-access line sat in the portfolio Rodolfo architected and demonstrated across Brazil - the SSL VPN he had first known from inside Juniper, in the very years Junos Pulse took shape.
Distributing secure access
The work was value-added distribution at its most technical: architecting remote-access designs around Pulse Connect Secure, running demonstrations and proof-of-concepts, and enabling channel partners on a product that sold into every vertical with a workforce outside the office. Policy Secure added the NAC conversation to the same platform, and the distributor's job was making both make sense in Brazilian enterprise networks - sizing, integration points, and the honest limits.
One product, five flags
The product Rodolfo distributed carried more history than most companies: born as Neoteris's Instant Virtual Extranet, the appliance that defined clientless SSL VPN; acquired by NetScreen in 2003; carried into Juniper with the 2004 NetScreen acquisition, where it became the SA series and then Junos Pulse - the chapter that overlapped Rodolfo's own years inside Juniper. Siris Capital carved the business out in 2014 as Pulse Secure, and Ivanti closed its acquisition on December 1, 2020, alongside MobileIron - the full genealogy is on this page below, and the NetScreen chapter has its own page in this record.
Certifications
No Pulse-specific certifications; the work was distributor-side pre-sales and enablement. The secure-access lineage continues today as Ivanti Connect Secure.
Founding stories
Pulse Secure
Pulse Secure was born a veteran. The product at its heart began as Neoteris's Instant Virtual Extranet - the appliance that defined clientless SSL VPN - which NetScreen bought in 2003 and Juniper inherited with NetScreen itself in 2004. Inside Juniper it became the SA series and then Junos Pulse, the remote-access standard of a corporate era; in 2014 Siris Capital carved the business out for roughly $250 million and Pulse Secure stood alone, one product family carrying four companies' history. This site's author met it from the distribution side, carrying Pulse in the ScanSource portfolio - while his own earlier chapter inside Juniper had overlapped the very years Junos Pulse took shape.
The timeline
- The Neoteris inheritance
NetScreen acquires Neoteris, whose Instant Virtual Extranet defined the clientless SSL VPN; Juniper's 2004 acquisition of NetScreen brings the line in-house - the story the NetScreen/Juniper page tells from the other side.
Neoteris-NetScreen (2003) and NetScreen-Juniper (2004) per the widely documented deal record.
- Siris carves out Pulse Secure
Siris Capital acquires the Junos Pulse business from Juniper (~$250 million per press coverage), forming Pulse Secure LLC - the SSL VPN franchise as a standalone company, with mobile-security startup MobileSpaces bought the same year.
- Pulse One
Central policy management arrives, unifying secure access across endpoints and mobile devices to applications on-premises and in cloud - the portfolio widening beyond the gateway.
- The Zeus thread arrives
Pulse acquires Brocade's virtual ADC business - the load-balancing lineage that began at Zeus Technology and passed through Riverbed as SteelApp - briefly uniting two storied product bloodlines under one small vendor.
- Rodolfo's chapterRodolfo's chapter
2018 to 2019: Pulse Connect Secure ran through Rodolfo's ScanSource portfolio - pre-sales and partner enablement on a product he had first known from inside Juniper.
- Into Ivanti
September 28, 2020: Ivanti announces the acquisition of Pulse Secure from Siris (terms undisclosed) alongside MobileIron; both close December 1, 2020. Pulse Connect Secure becomes Ivanti Connect Secure - the remote-access line under its fifth flag.
SEC 8-K and Ivanti/Siris announcements.
Flagship products and solutions
- Pulse Connect SecureThe SSL VPN flagship - the Neoteris-lineage gateway, remote access for a generation of enterprises, now Ivanti Connect Secure.
- Pulse Policy SecureNetwork access control from the same platform: posture, profiling, and enforcement at the point of entry.
- Pulse OneThe central management plane across gateways, endpoints, and mobile.
Key innovations
- Clientless SSL VPNThe Neoteris design Pulse inherited put remote access in a browser - no fat client, no IPsec ceremony - and set the template enterprise VPNs followed for two decades.
- One product, five flagsNeoteris, NetScreen, Juniper, Pulse Secure, Ivanti: the same secure-access lineage carried through four acquisitions - networking's supply chain of ideas in a single product family.
Main markets
The Pulse portfolio now ships as Ivanti's secure-access line, defending a vast VPN installed base while the market's center of gravity shifts toward zero-trust network access - the incumbent estate every ZTNA vendor bids to replace.
Analyst standing
- For years the SSL VPN reference alongside Cisco and F5 in the secure-access evaluations - the standing that made the franchise worth carving out, and worth acquiring twice.