SonicWall buy could bolster NAC options

Network Access Control This newsletter is sponsored by Nevis Networks Inside the industry's largest public NAC test Get an independent review of Cisco's CNAC and the Trusted Computing Group's TNC network access control frameworks via Network World's latest Editorial Briefing "Implementing NAC." Get the real scoop and go inside the industry's largest public test of available NAC products. Network World's Network Access Control Newsletter, 06/19/07 SonicWall buy could bolster NAC options By Tim Greene SonicWall buys up Aventail, bringing together two SSL VPN vendors whose mix of experience may result in a new NAC product line While neither company sells NAC gear now, aspects of their SSL VPN equipment and security services lend themselves to reducing the risk that a device joining a network will harm the network - the cornerstone of NAC. The two companies bring together endpoint security, access control engines and intrusion prevention, all of which can be massaged into a NAC offering. Explore the Business of Security in the Only Collaborative Summit for Senior Executives September 10-11, 2007 | The Fairmont Hotel Chicago How do you communicate to fellow executives the business value of allocating resources to drive security initiatives? At The Security Standard, you'll explore issues like these from a strategic viewpoint. It's the only event that fosters peer collaboration on the latest business, planning and best practices in security management. Click here for more details. Click here for more details SonicWall hopes to apply some of its basic product principles to NAC, such as making complex technologies easier to deploy and manage. Aventail brings with it endpoint control technology that lets customers grant separate access rights based on the trust they have in the machine being used to make the connection as well as other factors. The company also partners with Sygate and WholeSecurity to interrogate endpoints for security compliance before admitting them to networks, key NAC functions. After the $25 million purchase of Aventail goes through sometime next month, SonicWall will have the means to check endpoint security posture and to determine whether the posture meets admission policies. It will also be able to check whether devices are behaving within limits set by policy once they are on the network. SonicWall will also have devices that could enforce the decision made by the policy engine, but long-term it will have to devise a way to integrate its NAC equipment with network infrastructure. The long-term direction of NAC is using switches for enforcement. Or the company could do what some others have done and come up with an alternative access control scheme and call it NAC.   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 Nevis Networks Inside the industry's largest public NAC test Get an independent review of Cisco's CNAC and the Trusted Computing Group's TNC network access control frameworks via Network World's latest Editorial Briefing "Implementing NAC." Get the real scoop and go inside the industry's largest public test of available NAC products. 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: security.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