Cisco, Great Bay team to make NAC successful

Network Access Control This newsletter is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Special Report: Managing VoIP with a Lean Staff Discover how IT executives are managing the riding tide of VoIP and collaborative applications rollouts and operation despite lean network staffs with Network World's latest Special Report "VoIP and Beyond". Click here to download this Special Report. Network World's Network Access Control Newsletter, 07/10/07 Cisco, Great Bay team to make NAC successful By Tim Greene Cisco is teaming up with Great Bay Software to provide a function that is key to the success of NAC, but that Cisco can’t supply by itself. Cisco has an agreement to sell Great Bay’s Beacon Endpoint Profiler as part of the Cisco NAC line. Beacon Endpoint Profiler, which is sold on an appliance, automatically discovers and profiles all devices attached to the network. Knowing what devices are already on a network is essential to deploying NAC. Get Everyone from the CEO to the MySpace Generation to Support Your Security Plans. September 10-11, 2007 | The Fairmont Chicago How do you get everyone from the boardroom to the mailroom to comply with your security initiatives? Come collaborate with peers on critical business topics like this at The Security Standard-the only business summit for senior security executives. For the latest in planning and management strategies. Click here for more details. Click here for more details Since NAC grants or denies access to every device trying to get on a network, the NAC policy server must have a comprehensive list of those devices. Legitimate devices with no policy set for them would be indistinguishable from rogue devices. (One Great Bay customer reported that 60% of the devices on his network were incapable of reporting to the NAC server. These devices include printers, VoIP phones and the like.) In large networks, doing a manual network inventory would be costly and so time consuming that chances are it would be out of date before it was complete. The software has further utility in that it can track devices as they move from port to port on the network, making it possible to identify users associated with suspicious activity. Cisco plans to repackage the software under its own name, Cisco NAC Profiler, which will be part of the Cisco CAS/CAM dashboard. Cisco says the software won’t be available until September.   What do you think? Post a comment on this newsletter

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Contact the author: Tim Greene is a senior editor at Network World, covering network access control, virtual private networking gear, remote access, WAN acceleration and aspects of VoIP technology. You can reach him at tgreene@nww.com. This newsletter is sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent Special Report: Managing VoIP with a Lean Staff Discover how IT executives are managing the riding tide of VoIP and collaborative applications rollouts and operation despite lean network staffs with Network World's latest Special Report "VoIP and Beyond". Click here to download this Special Report. ARCHIVE Archive of the Network Access Control Newsletter. BONUS FEATURE IT PRODUCT RESEARCH AT YOUR FINGERTIPS Get detailed information on thousands of products, conduct side-by-side comparisons and read product test and review results with Network World’s IT Buyer’s Guides. Find the best solution faster than ever with over 100 distinct categories across the security, storage, management, wireless, infrastructure and convergence markets. Click here for details. PRINT SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE You've got the technology snapshot of your choice delivered to your inbox each day. Extend your knowledge with a print subscription to the Network World newsweekly, Apply here today. International subscribers, click here. SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES To subscribe or unsubscribe to any Network World newsletter, change your e-mail address or contact us, click here. This message was sent to: networking.world@gmail.com. Please use this address when modifying your subscription. Advertising information: Write to Associate Publisher Online Susan Cardoza Network World, Inc., 118 Turnpike Road, Southborough, MA 01772 Copyright Network World, Inc., 2007