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Network security continues to be a major focus for enterprise IT management and professionals. A significant challenge for IT is securely keeping pace with the proliferation and use of existing and newly introduced endpoint devices, including PDAs, iPods, printers, and copiers.
Many of these newly introduced IP devices that seek access to the network are unmanaged or unmanageable by IT and clearly represent added security exposure to the network’s overall security posture.
Enterprise networks have been giving corporate local users near-instantaneous access to internal and external digital information while providing secure remote network access for SSL/VPN and wireless access points (WAPs). As corporate networks have experienced increased bandwidth, stability, and availability, they have also become the conduit for supporting digital voice (VoIP) and video datastreams. As the proliferation of IP endpoint types continues, enterprise IT staffs recognize the significant increase in security vulnerabilities and threat vectors created by their introduction.
Adding to this complex mix of technical challenges, federal, local, and international regulations now mandate that enterprises establish comprehensive policy enforcement mechanisms, significantly raising the risk stakes for enterprise management and IT.
To begin addressing these network security headaches, Network Admission Control, as a network-based security architecture, was first announced by Cisco Systems Inc. late in 2003.
In early specifications and implementations of NAC, its primary purpose was to ensure a secure and healthy network by forcing all devices seeking to attach to the network to conform to established policies. Devices failing to conform to these policies were either placed into quarantine and given the opportunity to remediate or denied access to the network altogether. This definition remains a foundational tenant of what NAC does and/or should do. However, on the basis of the results of this IDC survey and further in-depth research, IDC anticipates that NAC will begin to play a broader and more significant role in securing and keeping enterprise networks sanitized.
Survey respondents would like to see these features more tightly integrated into NAC vendor product offerings.
Recent innovations in network security, now commonly referred to as network access control (NAC), have significantly increased the prospects for improved network health by reducing overall network security risks resulting from the proliferation of network attack vectors and the simultaneous introduction of existing and newly introduced IP network devices.
In IDC’s Worldwide Network Access Control 2007ñ2011 Forecast: Organizations Get the Knack for NAC (IDC #206966, June 2007), we discussed that IT executives representing six industries unanimously expressed optimism for NAC as an effective approach to improving overall network security. In contrast, the participants to this recent survey expressed significant reservations and concern over the lack of a common standard and interoperability between NAC vendor offerings.
Early NAC implementations required large capital investments by IT to replace or "forklift" many of their existing infrastructure components to implement NAC within their existing network infrastructures. With IT budgets under constant pressure, the need to replace or upgrade significant portions of the network infrastructure components to accommodate NAC significantly constrains the rate of NAC adoption by enterprises independent of their size.
NAC architectures and vendor implementations continue to evolve at a rapid pace, with NAC vendors seeking to differentiate their NAC solutions with more unique architectural approaches and enhanced features.
IDC believes that as a result of these announcements, two of the original NAC adoption concerns expressed by enterprises (i.e., standards and interoperability) have been, to a degree, lessened.
The Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and Juniper Networks announcements are considered to be significant steps forward for NAC adoption. IDC believes that some resistance to NAC adoption will continue until Microsoft releases its complete NAP support in Server 2008.
In an effort to address the concern over altering an existing network infrastructure to implement NAC, some vendors such as ConSentry Networks and Vernier Networks have architected their NAC solutions to ease the integration of NAC into existing IT network infrastructures. These NAC solutions provide IT staff with the flexibility of choice, where they are not forced into re-architecting their network infrastructures to implement NAC solutions.
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