Comply To Connect
Regulatory compliance is still the main reason most organizations deploy NAC, and its importance has only increased since last year. But it's far from the only driver. Controlling access to specific network resources remains a close second and was rated particularly high by deployers.
In many cases, data center access control is crucial. "We do a lot of classified work, so we have traditionally relied on physical security," says one respondent at a government lab. Until recently, his data center wasn't even connected to the Internet, but the agency has now opened it up to VPN users--provided their PCs pass some strict NAC tests enforced by endpoint agents.
Our survey asked network managers to choose the three main drivers for NAC, with 10 different options. As "Top NAC Motivators" (page 76) shows, the planner group's answers are mostly in line with last year's results, which didn't distinguish between planners and deployers. This makes sense, given that most enterprise NAC projects would have been less advanced last year. The major difference is that addressing general security compliance issues and controlling access to specific network resources have increased in importance--both were selected by more than half of all respondents. The relative positions of NAC drivers remain largely unchanged between this year's planners and last year's respondents.
The deployers tell a different story. General compliance and specific access control are even more important, but early adopters are also more likely to cite specific regulatory compliance requirements. In total, 69 percent of current NAC deployments are driven by compliance. This is reflected in our questions that asked about five particular regulations. Every one was more likely to be cited by the deployers, while the planners were more than twice as likely not to pick one at all.
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