Microsoft, Cisco partner on network-access security
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Microsoft and Cisco Systems will collaborate to make their emerging products for network security compatible. The vendors had been working independently in the area of PC access to networks but say customers
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Fujitsu and Cisco Systems announced that they have reached a fundamental agreement to enter into a strategic alliance focusing on routers and switches that will enable service providers and enterprises to build advanced Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
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Cisco Systems Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Monday will announce a collaborative effort designed to bridge a divide between their emerging network access-control architectures.
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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - IBM and Cisco Systems are broadening their security alliance to offer new automatic security applications for enterprise networks.
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Fujitsu Ltd. and Cisco Systems Inc. said today they have agreed to enter into a strategic alliance focusing on routers and switches that will help service providers and enterprises build advanced IP networks.
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Tech giants Microsoft and Cisco have agreed to develop and promote interoperability between their respective network access technologies.
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Cisco Systems and Microsoft&#39;s partnership in the small- and midsized-business market is bearing fruit. On Monday, Cisco announced a new software product that will link its voice over Internet protocol products
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In a deal sure to bring smiles to the faces of enterprise security pros, Microsoft (Quote, Chart) and Cisco Systems plan to integrate technologies and push for an industry standard to power network security and health policy compliance.
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In an effort to integrate its IP-based communications products with Microsoft customer relationship management software, Cisco Systems today announced the Cisco CRM Communications Connector.
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Cisco executives told analysts this week that the company plans to take data center virtualization into areas such as application-aware switching and will partner to provide systems management software.
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Well, here's your problem right here, ma'am Cisco, EMC, and Microsoft are joining forces to help the US government build a secure IT system for agencies to manage and share data.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Cisco SystemsÂ hasÂ expandedÂ aÂ range of security mechanisms for wired LANsÂ to theÂ wireless side of enterprise networks. The dominant LAN vendorÂ announceedÂ on Wednesday itÂ had upgraded its software and launched a set of guidelines for integrating wired and wireless security, called the Cisco Secure Wireless Solution. The new capabilities are available to any customer with current Cisco software, said Chris Kozup, manager of mobility solutions at Cisco. Customers can use the guidelines themselves to build a security architecture or enlist the help of Cisco's services organization or third parties. Enterprises are already able to bring wireless devices into Cisco's security system, which is built around ensuring any client is authorized and free of threats before it can hook up to the network. But bringing the same set of tools into the wireless domain can make that process easier, Kozup said. For example, if an enterprise wanted to secure wireless clients using Cisco's Network Access Control (NAC) appliance, the end user connecting via wireless would have to manually log into the NAC. Now that process can be transparent to the user, just as it is on the wired network, he said. In addition to the NAC, the architecture includes Cisco's ASA firewall, Cisco Security Agent (CSA), Cisco IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) software, Cisco Secure ACS (Access Control Server) and Cisco Secure Services Client. These long-time features of Cisco's wired security are being extended to wireless LANs as the company's latest step toward unifying wired and wireless into one network, Kozup said. The system makes the wired and wireless networks work together to bolster security. For example, if a notebook PC is connected to the LAN via a wired port, its wireless radio will be turned off automatically to prevent an attacker from using the wireless connection as a path on to the wired LAN. In addition, a Cisco wireless LAN controller, the mechanism in an appliance, router or switch that controls wireless infrastructure, can disconnect a wireless LAN client that poses a threat. The security built into all Wi-Fi products has improved in recent years and many vendors sell tools to secure wireless LANs, such as Aruba Wireless Networks Inc.'s technology that uses encrypted tunnels. Cisco's new approach may not be significantly more secure than those options, but it can simplify life for IT administrators, said Farpoint Group analyst Craig Mathias. For one thing, it's easier if security for both parts of the network uses a single directory of users, he said. Other approaches that are less expensive and more scalable can work just as well, according to Burton Group analyst Dave Passmore. "This is Cisco assuming the network perimeter needs to be protected right at the every edge, rather than a more centralized approach," Passmore said. There are no significant threats to an enterprise LAN that can't be handled from within the wired part of the network, he said.
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The goal is a &quot;single, coordinated solution&quot; that enables network administrators to control both Windows installations and Cisco network architecture, the two tech giants said.
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Microsoft and Cisco are integrating their security technologies in an effort to isolate computers that are infected with viruses or have other security risks -- thus preventing them from spreading the danger to corporate networks.
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(InfoWorld) - Cisco Systems and Microsoft will announce progress on a 2-year-old effort to link their separate technologies for network client health screening, commonly known as "network access control," according to sources familiar with the companies' plans.Â  The companies will use The Security Standard conference in Boston to unveil application program interfaces (APIs) in Microsoft's upcoming Vista operating system that will allow Cisco NAC-compliant switches and routers to evaluate the security posture of Vista systems. Network access control technology allows companies to perform health checks on endpoint devices such as PCs and mobile devices before they are granted access to company networks. For example, worker PCs might be checked to make sure they are not infected with a virus, have up-to-date antivirus definitions, and a desktop firewall enabled before being allowed onto a corporate LAN. Cisco first unveiled products that support its NAC architecture in June 2004. Since then it has slowly expanded NAC support from routers to switches and introduced a NAC appliance, formerly known as "Clean Access." Microsoft's Network Admission Protection (NAP) client health screening architecture has always been linked to its upcoming desktop and server operating system releases Vista and Longhorn, both due in 2007. In the face of strong customer pressure to simplify the competing architectures, the two companies said in October, 2004 that they would integrate NAC and NAP. However, the companies have been sparing with details of the collaboration during the two-year project, prompting speculation that the promised integration was more PR than reality. On Wednesday, the companies plan to show that they have made progress, putting features into Vista that allow companies with Cisco's Secure Access Control Server (ACS), Vista desktop systems, and a Longhorn network policy server to provide security status information from the Vista Security Center directly to Cisco switches, which can then evaluate the status against network policies. Systems that violate one or more security policies can be shunted off to quarantine for remediation, according to John Pescatore, an analyst at Gartner who has seen a demonstration of the system. The system will also allow companies to push out security updates, such as antivirus signatures, and actively monitor compliance, so users who turn off antivirus or firewall software after being granted access might have those programs automatically reactivated, Pescatore said. Cisco NAC and Microsoft NAP integration will make it easier for companies to deploy NAC technology, because they will not need to deploy any additional software client from Cisco, as is currently required, he said. "If you're a pure Cisco network and windows environment, and you're planning to go to Vista soon, you don't have to spend a lot of money," he said. However, the benefits of integrated NAC and NAP are at least a year away, as companies will have to wait for the delivery of Longhorn server and widespread adoption of Vista on enterprise desktops, according to Pescatore. "I think it's a 1990s announcement," said Jon Oltsik, an analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group. "They're treating the symptom but not the disease. Users want open solutions that support Linux clients and wireless and any kind of switch or router," he said. The integration between Microsoft and Cisco, while good for those companies, will hinder open standards efforts like the Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Network Connect (TNC) standard, Oltsik said. "I wish I had the money [Cisco and Microsoft] spent on this to get nothing," he said. "This is a big step back for client security."
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Juniper Networks claims to have added an important piece of technology for delivering on its integrated network security strategy as part of the launch of its high-speed EX-Series of enterprise switches.With onboard capabilities aimed at extending security functions, including applications usage visibility and NAC (network access control), among others, Juniper executives said that the devices -- the company's first set of high-performance switches targeted directly at enterprises, versus its existing systems aimed at telecommunications providers -- allow the networking gear provider to address demands being made by large customers.As enterprises replace aging networks with new high-performance equipment, security capabilities are high on the lists of core features that buyers are requesting, said Mark Bauhaus, executive vice president and general manager of the Service Layer Technology Business Group at Juniper.?While the infrastructure-defense tools represent only one aspect of the larger push to make networks faster and more reliable to support business operations, they have become an increasingly central element of customers' long-term goals, the executive said.Increased integration capabilities established between the new switches and Juniper's existing access control, firewall, intrusion prevention and UTM (unified threat management) products is the most significant aspect of the devices' added security functions, according to Bauhaus. "This truly builds on our strength to do end-to-end security integration," he said. "We're not looking to become a pure-play security vendor, but these are features that customers are looking for in building high-performance networking infrastructure."In addition to allowing for more unified, integrated security throughout their networking architecture, Bauhaus said that customers are looking to onboard security functions as a way to save money and reduce complexity by replacing other devices, including inline NAC appliances. "Customers clearly want to collapse the sheer number of special-use security devices," he said. "And with the integration to our Unified Access Control technology, we think that this launch represents another important stepping stone by providing customers with the ability to utilize unified access with additional support from their infrastructure."While rival Cisco Systems has been positioning itself as much as a provider of security tools as a networking specialist for the last several years, at least in terms of its marketing image, Bauhaus said that Juniper is more interested in being viewed as a leading provider of high-speed gear that offers embedded security and standards-based ties to network-defense tools offered by other vendors. All of the security functionality being integrated into the EX-Series switches and Juniper's networking gear is focused primarily on fostering high-performance infrastructure for customers that is also safe and reliable, he said.Building its products around open industry standards, in particular the security tools, is crucial to allowing third party developers to take advantage of the features, Juniper executives repeatedly stressed at Juniper's Global Enterprise 2008 event held in New York on Tuesday.Officials from IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle took the stage to endorse the networking company's ability to foster stronger ties with their own products.Businesses applaud Juniper's move Calvin Choe, director of technical business development for the Enterprise Networking Group at Microsoft, highlighted the importance of Juniper's work to allow for tight integration between its infrastructure technologies and Microsoft's NAP (Network Access Protection) iteration of NAC, which will arrive next month with the introduction of the software giant's Windows Server 2008 software. NAP is also supported in Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system. "Used with NAP, this will allow network administrators to create policies around identity and assess users' state of compliance to enforce their own set of criteria," said Choe. "The support of standards is important because we wanted to make sure that customers had their choice of switching vendors."In addition to partners, Juniper also hosted several customers on stage, all of whom mentioned the EX-Series' security features as one of the core strengths of the new product line. "Security is one of the most important things to us, and we wanted an extra layer of access control to deliver defense-in-depth," said Frank Ziegler vice president of communications for the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.Some industry watchers said that the new EX-Series switches add a crucial piece that had been missing from Juniper's product portfolio from an integrated security standpoint. The new hardware should help the company differentiate from its rivals, including Cisco -- which has aggressively added to its own security holdings over the last several years, said David Willis, a communications market analyst for Gartner. "I think one of the more interesting elements of the launch is Juniper's work to integrate with third parties like Oracle; Cisco has announced similar intentions to do so, but it may take them years to get products ready -- and the size of Cisco's installed base may actually represent a problem in terms of getting products to market," said Willis. "With Cisco, it's also not unusual to run into customers who may have as many as 50 different versions of its OS on its devices, and from that standpoint, sometimes nothing beats a fresh start."The analyst that just said how much of an advantage the new products could represent on the enterprise market will likely depend on how seriously customers view Juniper's efforts to truly embed security throughout its networking gear versus merely adding individual features.Other experts said that the addition of the switches' security features could threaten providers of standalone devices, such as inline NAC appliance vendors like ConSentry and Autonomic Networks."Clearly the fact that Juniper hasn't had a switching product in this space has limited the reach of UAC, but with customers that have existing investments in Juniper firewalls and VPNs, this could be seen as good news," said Paul Roberts, analyst with The 451 Group. "There's always the question if anyone is really going to do a rip and replace to get NAC functionality, but for companies doing upgrades and looking for the features, this could be a viable option," he said. "In some ways, the new switches may give Juniper the ability to leapfrog Cisco, Extreme Networks, and other rivals with some of these features for access control and applications visibility."
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TechWeb - New Secure Connector feature gives remote users secure network-level access, including access to business applications, data, and network services.