Skip to main content

Cisco NAC Profiler Announcement

Background:

Great Bay Software Inc., the innovator of Endpoint Profiling for enterprise networks, today announced it has signed a worldwide OEM agreement with Cisco that adds the company's Beacon Endpoint Profiler solution to the award-winning Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) product line. This agreement ensures that all network-attached endpoints, including non-PCs, meet the specified requirements for network access, creating the industry's most comprehensive NAC solution set.

As part of the agreement, Cisco will rebrand and sell the Beacon Endpoint Profiler as Cisco NAC Profiler. The Endpoint Profiling and Behavior Monitoring functions provided by NAC Profiler combined with the Cisco NAC Appliance solution will ease deployments and improve the security management of endpoints unassociated with specific users, such as network printers, medical imaging devices, IP phones, HVAC sensors and wireless access points. NAC Profiler can improve the return on investment for a NAC deployment by dynamically tracking the movement of these devices on the network.

The Cisco NAC Profiler provides a number of benefits both in the initial implementation of NAC and throughout the entire lifecycle of a deployment. Great Bay's Endpoint Profiling technology generates an automated inventory of all endpoints, significantly reducing the level of effort required in the implementation of NAC. The Cisco NAC Profiler informs the NAC system of critical endpoint data, including device address information, a type descriptor (printer, phone, AP, UPS, etc.), access type (a value that defines the appropriate level of access for that endpoint) and access to additional information about that device and its history in the network. This eliminates the need for manual inventories and data entry.

"We're excited to extend our collaboration with Cisco and to be part of an end-to-end NAC solution that provides a security model for all network-attached endpoints," said Steve Pettit, president of Great Bay Software. "Customers will benefit from Cisco's global business infrastructure and from the ongoing innovation this relationship will continue to deliver."

"Great Bay Software's endpoint profiling enhances an end-to-end NAC solution strategy," said Nick Chong, head of the NAC Appliance line of business for Cisco. "Cisco NAC Appliance, the leading NAC offering in the marketplace today, continues to represent the latest in technical innovation involving NAC, and adding Great Bay's profiling technology enriches our overall NAC solution."

Cisco's NAC Profiler will consist of two functional components in the NAC Appliance solution: the Profiler Server and the Collector Application. The Profiler Server will run on a dedicated appliance while the Collector Application will reside on the Cisco NAC Appliance Server. Cisco NAC Profiler is scheduled to be available in August 2007.

About Great Bay Software:

Great Bay Software Inc. is the innovator of Endpoint Profiling, a technology designed to rapidly establish and maintain a real time view of all network attached endpoints. The company's Endpoint Profiling technology has applications in enabling the deployment and administration of Network Admission Control and network-based authentication, in addressing compliance concerns related to unauthorized devices attaching to the Enterprise network, and in managing the endpoint lifecycle for all network attached devices.

Summary:

I have been working with beacon for over a year now and have had nothing but success for deployments and the customers on-going operations. It is the fries with burger when it comes to NAC in an enterprise environment. Next time you are planning a NAC deployment for your integration or are sick of adding device filters every time a new phone or printer is brought up check out Beacon!

Sources: MarketWire; Great Bay Software

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Cisco Zero Trust Architecture

 As a follow up to the previous post around Zero Trust Architecture , Cisco has been delivering zero trust architectures for customers for many years. With the platform approach provided by Cisco Zero Trust organizations gain better visibility across users, devices, containers, networks, and applications, verifying their security states with every access request. Adopting this model provides a balance between security and usability. Security teams can make it harder for attackers to collect what they need (user credentials, network access, and the ability to move laterally), and users can get a consistent and more productive security experience, regardless of where they’re located, what endpoints they’re using, or whether their applications are on-premises or in the cloud. Cisco Zero Trust provides a comprehensive approach to securing all access across applications and environment, from any user, device and location. It protects the workforce , workloads and workplac...

Why are Virtual Private Networks and Software Defined Perimeters mutually exclusive?

Increased remote work, vulnerabilities popping up and the #killthevpn movement has the cyber security industry laser focused on the transition from VPN to SDP. Let’s start with an acceptable definition of SDP from Wikipedia: “Software-defined perimeter (SDP) framework was developed by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) to control access to resources based on identity. Connectivity in a Software Defined Perimeter is based on a need-to-know model, in which device posture and identity are verified before access to application infrastructure is granted.” I hope we all can agree that the “ground truth" of SDP is valid and any organizations will benefit by adopting SDP architecture and principals(including Zero Trust). How is a Remote Access VPN any different than the “Client-to-gateway” deployment model defined for SDP? “In the client-to-gateway implementation, one or more servers are protected behind an Accepting SDP Host such that the Accepting SDP Host acts as a gateway between ...

Cisco Releases Idenity Services Engine (AKA ISE)

Introduction After years of innovation around Network Access Control, Cisco has released its next generation NAC solution: Identity Services Engine. ISE is combines existing loosely coupled devices AAA, profiling, posture and guest management - in single, scalability appliance. As part of the Cisco TrustSec solution and Cisco’s SecureX architecture for Borderless Networks, the Cisco Identity Service Engine provides a centralized policy engine for business relevant policy definition and enforcement. This policy work horse enables centralized, coordinated policy creation and consistent policy enforcement across the entire corporate infrastructure, from head office to branch office. ISE Features & Benefits Visibility: Single Platform & Pane of Glass - Let IT see who and what is on the network for advanced discovery and troubleshooting Dynamically collects & consolidates endpoint information to make adaptive policy decisions based on ‘context’ Integrates functions previously d...