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Cisco and Microsoft Unveil Joint Architecture for NAC-NAP Interoperability

Cisco and Microsoft are all set to provide customers and partners guidance on how Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) and Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) will interoperate.

In addition, the two companies have revealed a general road map for bringing Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP interoperability to market, including a limited beta program set to start later this calendar year. Customers will be able to start deploying the Cisco NAC-Microsoft NAP interoperable solution once Windows Server 'Longhorn' is available in the second half of 2007. Cisco and Microsoft have cross-licensed the Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP protocols to help ensure interoperability and to enable both companies to respond to future market and customer requirements.

“This is exactly what is needed in the market as businesses attempt to understand how to implement a network access control infrastructure in order to increase security amid an increasingly mobile work force and increasingly aggressive threat environment,” said Zeus Kerravala, vice president of security and networking research at Yankee Group. “Microsoft and Cisco must work together on this, and I’m pleased to see these two companies make the investment and the engineering commitment for interoperability.”

“The need for secure systems has dramatically increased over the past five years. Our relationship with Microsoft has enabled us to design this joint architecture and interoperability to enhance network security for businesses around the world,” said Charlie Giancarlo, chief development officer for Cisco. “This collaborative innovation represents a significant step in delivering Self-Defending Networks that protect IT resources across enterprise organisations of all sizes. Interoperability provides the flexibility customers need to deploy a comprehensive solution that fits their business needs and hardens their IT infrastructure against security threats — threats that today are more complex and require greater coordinated protection throughout the network.”

“Microsoft and Cisco are committed to work together to help our customers achieve the necessary balance between securing their IT infrastructure while enabling access to critical network resources,” said Bob Muglia, senior vice president of the Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “This is yet another milestone in our promise to IT customers that we will protect information and control access by providing a comprehensive, integrated and easy-to-manage security infrastructure of both Microsoft and third-party solutions.”


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