Cisco Adds Modularity to NAC

Cisco is adding yet another module to its Integrated Services Router (ISR)
with the introduction of the NAC Network Module which is a full installation
of Cisco's NAC appliance. Priced at $3500 for 50 users and $5000 for 100
users, the network module offers a savings over the base price for a NAC
Appliance which starts at $8995 for 100 users. The NAC module is available
now.

The main benefit of the NAC Network Module is that you can easily deploy NAC
in remote offices upto 100 users without having to add yet another box in
the branch and this takes the ISR one step closer to being the one-box
branch solution. The obvious downside is that Cisco's ISR modular routers
come in fixed expandability configurations with slots dedicated to network
modules and wan interface cards. The ISR 2811, the lowest ISR model that
supports network modules supporting one slot. The NAC Network Module takes
up a Network Module slot so if that slot, is already occupied with other
network modules like the Wide Area Application Services module, you will
have to decide which to use or upgrade that ISR to one in the 3800 family.
Cisco has unified the NAC and ISR management into a single interface,
simplifying configuration and control and you can use their Manager Lite for
upto three offices.