NAP Partner Brief from Foundry Networks

Recently, I was able to get my hands on a product from Foundry Networks while building out my NAP 802.1X Interoperability Showcase for RSA. Specifically, I was able to get the “Foundry FastIron Edge 4802-POE” 802.1X switch working flawlessly with NAP enforcement. I plan to make a follow-up blog post explaining exactly how I made this happen (including switch configurations).

I wanted to share a brief from Foundry Networks on what the Foundry – Microsoft NAP partnership is all about. Here is a quick excerpt from the full PDF document:

THE CHALLENGE

The proliferation of viruses and the threats they pose to enterprise networks makes the presence of antivirus software a network mandate. But even antivirus software is only as good as the timely installation of operating system updates, which can be a time and resource consuming challenge. Networks can be compromised when a computer requesting access to a network, or a device operating on the network, fails to meet the necessary health policy to prevent threats from propagating, such as operating system or antivirus updates.

HOW FOUNDRY AND MICROSOFT NETWORK ACCESS PROTECTION (NAP) HELP YOU MEET THE CHALLENGE

Network Access Protection (NAP) is a new platform and solution that controls access to network resources based on a client computer’s identity and compliance with corporate governance policy. Foundry Networks, a longstanding Microsoft Technology Partner, is delivering NAP interoperability for Foundry switches, which perform in conjunction with Microsoft Windows-based clients and the Microsoft Network Policy Server (NPS) to manage policies that restrict client access to network resources based on the health of the system. Joint customers of Microsoft and Foundry now have a standards-based tool to validate client health and secure network access without resorting to costly and potentially less effective proprietary networking technologies.

…continued in the full PDF document.

Cheers!

{ Jeff Sigman }{ Senior Program Manager & NAP Hero }{ Enterprise Security Group }
{ NAP Blog, FAQ, Forum, MSDN, Site and my bloÿg }