Network access control is an aspect of computer security that has been around much longer than the BYOD phenomenon and all the issues thrown up by having mobile devices accessing corporate IT systems. However BYOD has given NAC a new lease of life, according to research firm Frost & Sullivan.
It says in a white paper ‘Analysis of the Global Network Access Control Market’ that “NAC enables businesses to pursue a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) or Choose-Your-Own-Device (CYOD) strategy that allows employees to access the corporate network with their personal devices. ... BYOD is the highest-demanded usage case that will introduce many customers to the full capabilities and extensive value of modern NAC solutions.”
In its widest application NAC is technology that grants an external device access to network attached resources based on predefined parameters: Does it have the latest version of the operating system? Is the antivirus up to date? If it is a mobile device, is it trying to get in via a public WiFi hotspot? Depending on the answers to those questions, a device might be granted access to all or a limited subset of the resources to which access rights have been preconfigured.
In general, Frost & Sullivan says, NAC provides “centralised visibility, reporting, policy-enforcement and remediation of formerly unknown, unwanted or non-compliant systems [and] helps businesses to ensure and demonstrate compliance with IT governance, risk management, and compliance requirements.”
According to Frost & Sullivan, the market for NAC is undergoing a resurgence after some disappointments with the early examples of the technology. “The early NAC market was filled with dozens of vendors with different product architectures and strategies. Most of these products failed and customers grew disillusioned with NAC.”
However the remaining NAC vendors have invested heavily in product development to address the problems with earlier solutions, Frost & Sullivan says.
“The latest generation of NAC products are able to solve top IT challenges and deliver tangible business value to customers. NAC is poised for a secondary growth stage resulting from its improved functionality, usability, business value, and relevance to key enterprise IT challenges.”
However NAC will not replace mobile device management technologies. In the BYOD world Frost & Sullivan says that NAC and mobile devices management solutions are both necessary, and complement each other. MDM requires software to be installed on the device, which introduces additional complexity and effort on behalf of end users and IT staff, and lacks the broad network-level control offered by NAC, whilst NAC alone lacks the deep device-level controls offered by MDM.
“The combination of NAC and MDM provides the visibility, management, and granular control of all connecting devices necessary to secure a BYOD strategy.”
BYOD is now the main driver of growth in the NAC market and F&S is predicting 23 percent annual growth in a global NAC market that was worth an estimated $235.5 million in 2012, taking it to $671m by 2017. It says there are 15 vendors in the market with Cisco Systems, ForeScout Technologies and Juniper networks accounting for 63 percent between them.