Cisco is introducing a new NAC appliance dedicated to speeding up network access for corporate guests.

NAC Guest Server makes is possible for any employee to create a guest account so when visitors, consultants or vendors come to corporate sites, they can gain network access quickly.

If the company uses Cisco wireless access points to grant guest access, they can be the devices that enforce their NAC policy, Cisco says.

If the company already has a Cisco NAC Appliance, it can enforce the policies.

In December, the company plans to upgrade software on the appliance so it can also use Cisco 802.1x switches to enforce guest access.

Before, when they wanted to provision a guest account, a designated employee would have to set up the account in a NAC appliance or within Cisco’s Wireless LAN Controller, which involved training.

Cisco says that by having individual employees take care of creating accounts for their own guests, IT staff time is freed up to do other work.

With the appliance, authorized employees can log in to a Web page and set up the account. Businesses can designate these employees by creating groups in Active Directory or LDAP or RADIUS.

To provision a guest, the sponsor employee logs in to the device, enters guest details and sets the time window for which guest access is granted. The appliance can also send the guest their account information via e-mail or SMS message, or can print out a hard copy.

The device also logs when guests access the network, identifying details about the guest such as name, affiliation, e-mail address, etc., and who created the account.

The appliance costs $25,000.

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