Competition in the network access control (NAC) market increased last week with the arrival of Nevis Networks in the UK. Nevis offers technology that is designed to both manage user network access and prevent attacks on enterprise infrastructures.

Nevis’s European managing director Matthew Nunney said, “Technologically, we have a complete system to address early adopters. This consists of LANenforcer 1000 secure access switches and 2000 series inline LAN security appliances, with policy configuration and management configured and controlled through our LANsight management package.”

Asked whether an inline appliance might have problems scaling to large numbers of users, Nunney said, “One of our major features is the inline capabilities. We’ve developed an Asic called Supernova that gives us full 10Gbit/s capability on the switch.”

Nunney said deploying his firm’s NAC technology is similar to setting up SSL VPN-style systems. “The user fires up his browser and logs on, and we perform a network integrity check to make sure their virus definitions and Windows patches are current. Then we tie the enforcement policy for network access to a specific username and password,” he said.

The user is then let through or quarantined and asked to update their definitions, although Nunney said it is best not to block users for trivial policy violations as this can lead to lots of helpdesk calls.

The LANenforcer 1000 appliance can secure 100 users and uses gigabit Ethernet ports, while the 2000 series can scale to 1000 users and uses small form factor pluggable optical transceivers. Pricing for the 1000 series starts at £9,350 + VAT, with the 2000 series starting at £21,750 + VAT.

‹ www.nevisnetworks.com