Overcoming The Common Pitfalls Of NAC

Network access control (NAC) is one of the hottest, yet vexing, technologies on the 2008 security agenda. As a network manager, you're eager to deploy it and mitigate risk by segmenting users and baking compliance checks directly into your network. Early adopters at peer organizations suffered from cost and complexity issues, but fortunately the technology has matured and we now see that a quarter of enterprises are fully up and running. NAC is still an evolving technology, however, with complexities that need to be managed. How do you make NAC successful? You should: 1) build a business case based on securing guest and employee access; 2) identify and prioritize all the relevant scenarios, which requires collaborating with your security colleagues; 3) kick off a three-stage deployment process with escalating enforcement actions; and 4) avoid common implementation mistakes like choosing products that lack rich identity capabilities.