Architectural Efforts
Cisco, Microsoft, and the Trusted Computing Group have been working toward broad architectures, or frameworks, for deploying NAC.
Cisco’s Network Admission Control Framework embeds NAC capability in Cisco’s network hardware. The company’s Network Admission Control Program provides for third-party vendor integration into the framework.
Microsoft, meanwhile, pursues NAC through its Network Access Protection effort. Network Access Protection is a policy enforcement platform built into Microsoft’s Vista operating system and “Longhorn” server operating system.
Cisco and Microsoft have announced plans to seek interoperability between their NAC approaches. “It’s a pretty strong chance the customer will have some kind of Microsoft product in the network,” O’Connell said. “We want to make sure they [Cisco and Microsoft components] communicate with each other.”
The Trusted Computing Group’s Trusted Network Connect (TNC) initiative seeks to offer a standards-based NAC approach. The TNC architecture lets network operators “enforce policies regarding endpoint integrity at or after network connection” according to Trusted Computing Group.
“A lot of this needs to be driven by the market and customers really need to apply some pressure to find a common ground between the various architectures,” Falcon said. “There are no set standards yet and no clear winner.