Giants to provide joint security architecture — The result should be a breakthrough in integrated IT security when the whole package arrives in the second half of next year.
Cisco and Microsoft lately released closely held details about their two-year-old partnership to deliver integrated controls that prevent malware-infested computers from connecting into networks, which enable users of Windows Vista and the Longhorn server platform to stay secure when using Cisco networks…
Now corporate customers who want to protect their networks from unauthorized users will be able to use both Cisco’s Network Admission Control and Microsoft’s Network Access Protection security frameworks.
The companies had promised back in 2004 that the two security architectures would be interoperable.
The initiative is intended to get Cisco’s Network Admission Control (NAC) technology to work with Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) to interoperate, so that external users connecting back to the network are verified and do not compromise security.
The technology works by ensuring that machines logging-on to a network are secure before being allowed access, keeping the network safe when users have been working outside the office.
Instead of Microsoft and Cisco customers facing a choice between NAP and NAC, they can now choose the components, infrastructure and technology from each to create a hybrid solution that is ‘guaranteed’ to work.
Cisco and Microsoft released a technical white paper at a security trade show in Boston that describes how their systems can be used together. They also demonstrated the new architecture for potential customers.
The pair said they expect to test a limited beta version of the architecture later this year. It will be commercially available in the second half of 2007, the companies said.
Cisco Systems, known for its aggressive acquisition strategy, is pushing forward with its partnership program as it announces the completion of a security platform with Microsoft and a new marketing partnership with business software company SAP.
For much of its existence, Cisco has used acquisitions as a way to enter new markets quickly and to round out its technology and product portfolios. In the past two decades, it has acquired more than 100 companies.
But Cisco has also been forming strategic partnerships over the years with several large companies, such as Microsoft, Ericsson, IBM, and now SAP, to help round out its portfolio and to make sure that its products are interoperable with other products its customers are using.
Cisco also announced that it has entered a joint marketing agreement in the United States and Canada with SAP to specifically address governance, risk and compliance (GRC) business processes and information-technology control issues.
The partners have also set out a road map for bringing NAC and NAP to market, including a limited beta program to start later this year. However the full NAC/NAP solution will not be fully up and working until Longhorn is available some time in the second half of 2007.
Zeus Kerravala, vice president of security and networking research at Yankee Group, said: "This is exactly what is needed as businesses attempt to implement a network access control infrastructure to increase security amid an increasingly mobile workforce and an increasingly aggressive threat environment.
“Microsoft and Cisco must work together on this, and I’m pleased to see the two companies making the investment and the engineering commitment to interoperability.”
The result should be a breakthrough in integrated IT security when the whole package arrives in the second half of next year, the target date for Longhorn’s release. Cisco and Microsoft said they expect to test a limited beta version of the architecture later this year. It will be commercially available in the second half of 2007, the companies said.
Under the joint Cisco-Microsoft vision, the access control process begins when a client running Vista attempts to authenticate to the network by sending a "statement of health," which includes information from so-called system-health agent software, to a Cisco Secure Access Control Server, or ACS, via a switch or router. System-health agent software is available from Microsoft as well as third-party vendors including Altiris, McAfee, and Symantec.
The new marketing effort will help link SAP’s governance, risk and compliance solutions with access and identity information gathered from Cisco’s Service Oriented Architected Network Architecture (SONA).
Cisco and Microsoft have done solid work in making access control much easier by letting their technologies communicate with each other, but this would not be a big deal to most businesses until they have Vista on their PCs and Longhorn on their servers.
Through the marketing agreement, the companies will collaborate on sales and marketing and provide advanced services to corporate customers.
No financial information about the deal was released. The agreement is the first of its kind in the business software arena, SAP said in a statement.