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Is the BYOD craze going to bring a revival of NAC, the policy-based network-accesscontrol that was hyped a decade ago but didn't end up widelyadopted for endpoint security ? Gartner, for one, is predicting the bring your own device (BYOD)phenomenon, in which employees are being allowed to use their ownpersonal Apple iPads, iPhones, Google Android devices and other mobile-ware for business purposes, will lead toa revival of NAC. CASE STUDY: BYOD policy bites vacationing CEO BYOD BATTLE: A tale of two opposing IT viewpoints NAC, you may recall, was supposed to be widely used for employeeand guest worker computer access to enterprise networks, doingthings like checking to make sure antivirus or patch updates werein place before allowing users on. Though a respected technology,NAC just didn't catch on to big effect. This time around though,NAC will be wedded to mobile-device management (MDM) software and the NAC function will be there to ensure MDM requirements arebeing met before allowing that Android and iPhone device or Windows mobile devices onto the networks -- at least that's the idea. "NAC has been around for almost 10 years," says Gartner analystLawrence Orans, who acknowledges the "first wave" of NAC crestedwith a fairly modest adoption, mainly by financial institutions andsome high-security situations, plus a few universities. But NAC is getting a second chance to go mainstream because ofBYOD, and this time it will gain much more ground as a securityapproach, Orans predicts. "BYOD is an unstoppable trend," hepredicts, with businesses in ever greater numbers allowingemployees to carry enterprise data on personal tablets. It seems the software industry may be willing to bet on it, too.The first integrated NAC/MDM was announced today as Fiberlink,which provides MDM via its cloud-based MaaS360 mobile-device management service, detailed how it's partneringwith ForeScout with its agentless CounterAct appliance for NAC. According to Scott Gordon, ForeScout vice president of worldwidemarketing, anyone with the Fiberlink MDM will now be able to exertNAC controls for Apple iOS or Google Android devices with aCounterAct add-on module. And ForeScout in turn will soon beselling what it calls "ForeScout MDM powered by MaaS360" under alicensing arrangement with Fiberlink. ForeScout anticipates similararrangement with other MDM vendors. There are a lot of MDM vendors today -- London-based consultancyOvum estimates there are about 70 MDM vendors of varying typesangling for attention. NAC being forged into MDM offers some advantages, says Orans, interms of allowing IT managers to set policy-based controls on BYODtablets and smartphones in the enterprise. In the mobile-device context, NAC might checkto see if there's BYOD "containerization" in place, for instance,to make sure personal and business data is cordoned off in some waybefore granting network access. Fiberlink and ForeScout say their approach for BYOD allows for apolicy to isolate personally owned devices in a limited accesszone, where they may access a subset of applications and data. Employees may find advantages in the NAC/MDM controls, too, saidFiberlink's Neil Florio, vice president of marketing, because itwill allow for the enforcement of privacy settings. "Employees havethe fear that management will have the ability to see things ontheir devices they wish they wouldn't," he noted. But an ITorganization can set that, determining not to look into personaldata on a BYOD tablet. Orans says the Fiberlink/ForeScout partnership may be the first tomeld NAC and MDM but there are going to be several more to followin the future. Ellen Messmer is senior editor at Network World, an IDG publicationand website, where she covers news and technology trends related toinformation security. Read more about wide area network in Network World's Wide Area Network section. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as China HD PVR Satellite Receiver , Dreambox Satellite Receiver Manufacturer, and more. For more , please visit Internet Sharing Satellite Receiver today!
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