Biggest concern for businesses looking to deploy NAC

The biggest concern for businesses thinking about deploying NAC are the cost and complexity of the project, according to a survey by Current Analysis.

The worries about how complex the deployments are centered on whether the NAC gear would be compatible with other hardware and software already deployed and what it would take to remedy any problems, according to “The Current Analysis 2007 NAC Enterprise Demand Survey.”

Beyond these concerns, potential NAC users also worry in a general way that NAC gear isn’t fully baked yet. As a result, they may want to delay deployment until it matures, the survey concludes.

Despite these concerns, corporate investment in NAC is increasing and many seem on the verge of buying. Most respondents to the survey say they plan to have their NAC deployments completed within two years, with more midsized businesses indicating they will deploy within a year.

The large corporations say they expect NAC to be a continuing area of growth, not a one-time installation, the survey says.

Respondents to the survey were most aware of Cisco’s NAC than any other vendors’. “No vendor comes close to Cisco’s ability to garner market attention,” the survey says. Interestingly, though, start-ups that sell nothing but NAC gear generated the greatest loyalty among customers that have already deployed.

The other big vendor getting into NAC, Microsoft with its network access protection (NAP), is being hurt by its delays releasing the components necessary to deploy NAP. The percentage of respondents willing to wait for Microsoft to ship NAP has dropped since last year’s survey, and few respondents plan to deploy it when it is released later this year.

More information about the report written by Andrew Braunberg is available from Current Analysis.

Editor’s Note: Starting Aug. 14, this newsletter will be renamed “Security: Network Access Control” to better reflect the focus of the newsletter. We thank you for reading Network World newsletters!