Lisa Vaas over at eWeek is reporting on a new NAC survey coming out of the Aberdeen Group. In Carol Baroudi's "Who's Got the NAC? Best Practices in Protecting Network Access" report (it's free if you discount the sponsor sending bugging you for the next few weeks), she surveys close to 400 NAC adopters and attempts to benchmark who is doing a good job of controlling access to their networks (while also reviewing some the processes and technologies they are using). It's interesting reading and reviewing the deployments rather than the technologies and vendors is a refreshing take on a NAC survey.
Here's the take away for me. Those who are considered Best in Class in the report have a strong focus on a holistic approach to NAC and prioritise the post-connect functionality and the need to persistently monitor and control endpoints and users in a meaningful way after they get on the network (and we're not just talking about doing an endpoint posture check every 10 minutes). They also believe that operational considerations and the end user experience are of paramount importance to success.
Here is what those Best in Class organization say are the most important things to expect out of a NAC solution:
- Prevents unauthorized users from accessing the network
- Causes minimal operational impact on users, help desk and network performance
- Supports/enforces policies specific to different user groups
- Logs all network access events for auditing
- Prevents unauthorized devices from accessing the network
- Centrally records all events
- Can be installed without directly impacting network performance
- Is transparent to the user
- Supports enforcement for remote users
- Can quarantine unhealthy machines without cross-infection
- Assesses endpoint security status
This certainly gels with what our customers are telling us as well. I think point number 2 is where most NAC solutions fall flat on their faces. Most vendors have given very little consideration to getting the solution into the network seamlessly and ensuring there is a transparent user experience. I'm proud to say that our customers have no such worries. If you'd like to read an impartial, blow by blow, daily account of the evaluation and operational deployment of a NAC product into a sizeable production network, head over to Justin Gerharter's blog at www.bumpinthewire.com
//Dom



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