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NAC + NAP = ?
By Ellen Messmer
From Network World Fusion’s Security Research Center, 10/25/04
Cisco and Microsoft last week made something of a surprise announcement by saying they intend to work together to integrate two separate and emerging technologies for security-policy enforcement for desktop systems.
The first, from Cisco, is called Network Admission Control (NAC). NAC began last year and it’s further along in development than Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP), which was unveiled about three months ago. Both NAC and NAP are intended to be multi-vendor technical efforts that include several other security software vendors, particularly the anti-virus software vendors. Last week, some of the A/V vendors involved in both NAP and NAC voiced relief that these parallel efforts for desktop security policy enforcement may eventually be boiled into one technology for their customers—even though it may be a long boil that takes two to three years.
Collaboration between Microsoft and Cisco to combine NAC and NAP “is a good thing,” said Lane Bess, president of North American operations at Trend Micro, who said the anti-virus software vendor subscribes to both initiatives.
Since July, Trend Micro has had support for NAC embedded into its anti-virus software for customers. About a dozen customers so far are looking at using it, said Bess. He said it seems that since NAC calls for desktop software to interact with routers and switches for purposes of quarantine and remediation, it’s pushing the corporate IT staff involved in managing desktop software to work closely with networking staff.
The decision by Microsoft and Cisco to work together should help to further customer interest in end-point security, says Rees Johnson, McAfee’s director of product management.
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