Perimeter security is so 20th Century. The days when a firewall could protect a network are long past, if they ever existed in the first place. With organizations dealing with wireless LANs, remote workers, guest network access, and IP telephony, circling the wagons around the network doesn't get the job done. Hence, network access control (NAC) technology is becoming essential to protecting today's networks.

NAC is a method of boosting security by denying endpoint devices access to network resources unless they comply with a defined security policy. NAC technology can also restrict the data that particular users can access, implement other security technologies such as antivirus protection and spyware protection, and continue to monitor user devices and activity for the entire time they are connected to the network.

The NAC market is crowded, with dozens of startups competing with the leading software vendors and network hardware manufacturers. Experts say the market is still maturing as vendors struggle to agree on even a definition of NAC. So SearchNetworking turned to its readers to select their favorite NAC products.

Our readers picked Nortel Secure Network Access (NSNA) as the Product Leadership 2008 gold award winner. NSNA is a security framework that inspects, assesses, ensures policy compliance, and remediates at the network endpoint source before allowing users network access. It allows network administrators to centrally manage and enforce access policy for all user types.

NSNA supports both Nortel and non-Nortel network environments and adheres to the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Network Connect specifications, which guarantees that organizations won't be locked into a proprietary architecture.

The core of NSNA is the Nortel Secure Network Access Switch 4050, a network appliance that supports up to 2,500 end users and can be clustered to accommodate up to 10,000 users per switch cluster. It has a browser-based interface for simplified system management and administration, and it provides access control without the installation of agents on endpoint devices.

Ninety-five percent of readers rated NSNA good or excellent for its effectiveness in detecting, blocking and cleaning up malware and exploits. Eighty percent rated Nortel's frequency and speed of signature updates good or excellent, and 75% praised its policy-based NAC as good or excellent.

Shamus McGillicuddy, News Editor