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You set the policies.

Built for the Cloud: Why Cloud-Native RADIUS and PKI Are Simply Better

6 min read
Updated
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Modern infrastructure is distributed, identity-driven, and cloud-managed. Your network authentication layer should be too.

Foxpass Cloud RADIUS and Cloud PKI were built from the ground up for this reality – not adapted from on-prem systems, not lifted into IaaS, and not dependent on customer-managed infrastructure.

The Real Problem: Owning Authentication Infrastructure

Solutions like FreeRADIUS, Microsoft NPS, and appliance-based NAC platforms (Cisco ISE, Aruba ClearPass, Soliton NetAttest) all share a common model:

You are responsible for running them.

That responsibility includes:

  • Designing and maintaining availability

  • Managing redundancy and failover

  • Operating certificate infrastructure (PKI)

  • Patching, upgrading, and securing systems

  • Scaling across locations and environments

Even when deployed in the cloud, these systems remain self-managed infrastructure – just running in a different place.

Cloud-Native Is a Better Operating Model

There’s a fundamental difference between hosting RADIUS in the cloud and using a cloud-native RADIUS and PKI service.

Foxpass is the latter.

1. Availability Is Built In, Not Engineered

With self-managed RADIUS, availability is something you have to design, implement, and continuously manage. Redundancy, failover, monitoring, and incident response all fall on your team.

With Foxpass, availability is built into the service. Redundancy and failover are handled automatically. There is no infrastructure to design or maintain – only a service that works.

2. Global Performance Without Complexity

Today’s networks span:

  • Cloud-managed Wi-Fi platforms (Meraki, Mist, Aruba Central)

  • Remote users and distributed teams

  • Multi-region environments

Self-managed RADIUS requires deliberate architecture to handle latency and scale.

Foxpass provides:

  • Globally available infrastructure

  • Low-latency authentication by default

No regional deployments. No traffic engineering. No performance tuning.

3. Certificate-Based Authentication Without Running Your Own PKI

EAP-TLS and certificate-based authentication are now standard for secure access. But traditional approaches require additional work across multiple systems:

  • Operating a Certificate Authority (CA)

  • Managing certificate issuance, renewal, and revocation

  • Integrating with MDM and device onboarding workflows

  • Aligning certificate identity with your cloud Identity Provider (IdP)

This is where complexity compounds. Certificates aren’t just about devices – they need to map cleanly to user identity, group membership, and access policy. Without that alignment, organizations end up managing parallel systems for identity and authentication, increasing operational overhead and risk.

Foxpass Cloud PKI is designed to unify this:

  • Certificate issuance tied directly to user identity

  • Native integration with IdPs like Entra ID, Google Workspace, Okta, and OneLogin

  • Seamless coordination with MDM workflows for device onboarding

  • Automated access lifecycle management without manual intervention

The result: strong, passwordless authentication, without building and maintaining PKI, and without disconnects between device and user identity.

4. Native Integration with Identity and Device Management

Access control today is driven by identity and device posture.

Foxpass integrates directly with:

  • Identity Providers (Entra ID, Google Workspace, Okta, OneLogin)

  • MDMs (Intune, Jamf, Iru/Kandji, Addigy)

  • Directories (LDAP, Active Directory)

Or use Foxpass’s built-in directory for users who aren’t managed by an external IdP.

This enables:

  • Automated user provisioning and deprovisioning

  • Group-based access policies

  • Seamless certificate deployment

  • Immediate access revocation during employee offboarding – no manual cleanup required

5. No Maintenance, No Patching, No Operational Overhead

Self-managed systems require continuous care: OS updates, dependency patching, security monitoring, incident response – often pushing maintenance work into evenings and weekends just to keep systems running reliably.

With Foxpass, updates are continuous and transparent, security is vendor-managed, and infrastructure is fully abstracted. Your team focuses on access policies – not infrastructure uptime.

6. Simplicity Without Compromise

Traditional NAC and RADIUS platforms are powerful – but complex by design. They were built for:

  • Static, centralized networks

  • Dedicated teams managing authentication infrastructure

Foxpass is built for:

  • Cloud-first environments

  • Distributed networks

  • Lean IT and DevOps teams

You get enterprise-grade security, without enterprise-grade overhead.

Hybrid NAC vs. True Cloud-Native

Many solutions described as “cloud” still rely on customer-managed infrastructure for network authentication. For example, some platforms combine a SaaS management layer with on-premises or self-hosted RADIUS/NAC components (e.g., solutions built around appliance-based NAC with cloud orchestration). As a result, teams are still responsible for deployment and scaling, redundancy and failover, and ongoing maintenance and patching.

Cloud-native services eliminate this entirely by delivering both control and enforcement from the cloud. The difference isn’t just architecture – it's operational ownership.

The Bottom Line

Running your own RADIUS and PKI infrastructure is possible. But it introduces operational overhead, complexity, and risk that no longer needs to exist.

Foxpass Cloud RADIUS delivers secure, scalable, identity-driven network authentication as a fully managed cloud service.

No infrastructure. No maintenance. Just reliable access control.

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