An Introduction to the Redefining NAC Series
One of the great things about this industry is the opportunity it affords us to regularly interact with colleagues and peers to share ideas, learn and bounce ideas around. Recently I’ve been engaged in several of these types of conversations regarding NAC and where the market and technology is headed.
In the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to work with a variety of customers across many segments and interested in implementing NAC technologies for a variety of reasons. During this time, I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked with a wide cross section of NAC vendors at both the technical and strategic levels, giving me a strangely unique view of the market, customer needs and vendor solutions. Here’s where I should say this series is the product of my personal views and is not based on any information from my employer or partner companies.
These thoughts have been rattling around in my head for a while and I’ve finally managed to pull most of it into a cohesive document outlining the current state of NAC, why NAC has not seen widespread adoption and steps the industry can take to simplify NAC technologies for broad adoption.
What better time to launch this series than here at Interop, and specifically on the day we’re participating in the NAC panel hosted by Mike Fratto, titled “Network Access Control – Is It Ready for Prime Time?”
Generally, the series is loosely broken into five parts, outlined below. Of course, being presented in blog format, that certainly doesn’t preclude me from straying a bit.
Part I: The NAC Market & Adoption
Part II: Mapping NAC Functions
Part III: Reducing Cost & Complexity for Widespread Adoption
Part IV: Renaming NAC
Part V: Moving Forward
The full content will be made available as a single document at the conclusion of the series. If you’re signed up to receive email updates (see right side bar) you guys just may be receiving that document before it’s publicly posted.
I would love readers’ input on the topic, so please feel free to agree or argue and comment until your heart’s content!
If you’re at Interop, we’d love to have you stop by the NAC Panel (see next post). Otherwise, I hope you enjoy the series!
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