Reviewer Joel Snyder finds it beneficial for wireless, VPN deployments
Despite a strategy in flux, Cisco had some positive feedback from product tester and reviewer Joel Snyder on its NAC offerings. The company’s NAC Appliance has some powerful in-line network access control enforcement for wireless and VPN environments, Snyder reports; it can also function in edge-enforcing mode to managed VLANs on Cisco switches using SNMP.
The drawback to the Cisco approach is that the tools for defining network access controls, especially in edge enforcement mode, are limited in scope, Snyder reports. Features such as direct support for MAC-based authentication for VoIP devices or printers are not built into the NAC Appliance – instead, Cisco expects users to employ the features built into their switches for this and other granular capabilities.
Cisco had two seemingly redundant NAC products on the market for awhile: NAC Appliance and NAC Framework. Cisco apparently let the two product groups duke it out internally – and externally, on the market – while it devised a strategy to streamline the offerings, Snyder reported in a story last month. It appears NAC Appliance has the upper hand.
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