Verizon Business is using its unique blend of worldwide professional and managed service capabilities to help customers understand, deploy and manage one of the most promising yet complex security technologies in years - Network Access Control (NAC).
The technology helps boost network security by allowing only authorised users and compliant devices to access a company's network. NAC is increasingly important as businesses become more distributed and mobile. It provides a means for controlling access to a company's extended network as more employees, contractors, customers, suppliers, vendors and partners connect to critical resources and business applications.
"Because of its complexity, Network Access Control technology is under-utilised, even though it offers organisations a stronger, better way of protecting their data," said Kerry Bailey, vice-president of Verizon Business Security Solutions. "Verizon Business has the experience and expertise to educate businesses about this technology and enable them to use it effectively."
According to Andrew Braunberg, research director at Current Analysis: "The Network Access Control market has taken off more slowly than expected because of the overall complexity of engagements and the general immaturity of products in the market. The adoption of professional services focused on NAC engagements, product evaluations to determine the right fit for each customer's use cases, and the option of adopting managed services, such as those offered by Verizon Business, will accelerate the maturation of the NAC market and will create additional peace of mind for organisations adopting the technology."
NAC is designed to grant network access only to compliant and trusted endpoint devices, such as servers, laptops and work stations. With intelligence residing in the network, NAC checks endpoints across all access methods, including local area and wide area networks, wireless connectivity, remote access, unmanaged device access and guest access. If devices are noncompliant with the company's security policy, then NAC can deny or restrict those devices from gaining access to the network.
By linking network-based security with identity and access management and endpoint security technologies (including anti-virus, host intrusion prevention and patch management), NAC can greatly limit potential damage to the critical resources from known and unknown security threats that expose vulnerabilities.
How Verizon Business helps organisations realise benefits of NAC
Verizon Business supports all aspects of the technology, from design to strategy to implementation, and to management and maintenance. It is immediately available globally to enterprise customers throughout the US, Europe and Asia-Pacific, including Australia, Belgium, France, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
To help businesses deploy NAC, Verizon Business Professional Services experts assess the customer's needs and requirements to establish the optimal application of NAC within the enterprise. Subsequently, Verizon Business will help to evaluate and select a technology vendor. Verizon Business works with the leading NAC vendors, including Cisco, Juniper Networks, ForeScout Technologies and TippingPoint.
The professional services team also designs the infrastructure, configures and installs the NAC technology and provides training to the customer. In addition, Verizon Business' Managed Security Services (MSS) technology and team help customers manage and monitor their NAC technology round-the-clock, 365 days a year.
For customers already using Verizon Business' MSS, the log data collected from the NAC infrastructure is aggregated with data from other managed security devices to provide a more complete view of the customer's security posture. To date, Verizon Business has integrated Cisco Network Admission Control into its MSS platform, with plans to support additional NAC technologies.
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