What is Network Access Control?
Several industry analysts have weighed in on NAC technology, each with a different set of terminology and slightly different definitions of what NAC solutions should entail. For example, Forrester has coined “Network Quarantine”, while Meta uses “Endpoint Access Control.” Gartner has also created a reference design for Network Access Control. This design is really a continuous process for evaluating endpoints, mitigating security problems, admitting systems to the network, and monitoring them on an ongoing basis for compliance with a set of globally-maintained policies. Since the Gartner framework is one of the most complete, it is worth looking at the process it defines and also the pieces that are required to make NAC work. Gartner’s NAC process starts with the definition of security policy. Policies outline the security configurations that administrators wish to enforce as a prerequisite for network access. These policies can include any system or third-party software configurations
