Cisco Network Compliance Manager, Known as NCM, is a standout management product that performs. Need a network device audit based on things like PCI, HIPAA, ITIL, etc? Need to roll-out config and software changes to several devices? Need a real-time visio network diagram? Need a super detailed inventory of all your network devices? Want a live PSIRT alert system that tells you exactly what devices need remediation, downloads the code to fix it with, and produces a report showing if the device can support the new code? Need a configuration archiving mechanism with one click roll-back? Need full configuration change management with workflow even changes not done through NCM? Well, you guessed it NCM has all that and a few other things worth noting like it supports about 30 other vendors products. See the screenshots of these features throughout the blog.
Given the corporate focus on regulations and standards this year, several have been searching for a tool to help them become, remain, and prove compliance. Picture this, your PCI auditor asks you to provide them with tons of information. You login to NCM, click on compliance center, click on PCI audit, click run and email the auditor a real-time PCI audit report of your devices… Swish, nothing but net!

Now some screenshots of the other features I mentioned:
Jamey Heary, CCIE No. 7680, is the author of the Cisco NAC Appliance: Enforcing Host Security with Clean Access book by Cisco Press. Jamey is a seasoned security technologist with over 15 years in the IT field with 10 years focused on IT security. His areas of expertise include network and host security design and implementation, security regulatory compliance, and routing and switching. His other certifications include CISSP, CCSP, and Microsoft MCSE. He is also a Certified HIPAA Security Professional. Jamey is currently a Security Consulting Systems Engineer with Cisco, though the opinions expressed here are his own. Jamey is a member of Network World's Cisco Subnet blog community.
NCM Demo
Jamey, as you know from our calls we are definitely excited about NCM. Once we get our development box up and running we will be sure to let you know our feedback.
Great introductory article here, thanks for writing it up!