27 April 2008

Dubai: HP's ProCurve Networking has integrated with Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP) to protect networks and provide customised access policies across both wired and wireless environments.

"The solution is an open, secure, standards-based interoperability that integrates ProCurve's trusted infrastructure, policy management system and Micro-soft's NAP technology," Nick Hancock, EMEA product manager, ProCurve Networking, said.

Microsoft NAP is a policy enforcement technology built into the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 operating systems. It allows customers to better protect network assets from unhealthy computers by enforcing compliance with network health policies.

"It is a powerful tool that allows network administrators to efficiently manage the users and devices connecting to their network. It allows easy creation and management of user policy groups; dynamically apply security, access and performance setting at port level based on policies; network reports and logs based on users for audit," Hancock said.

"Today's networks are highly connected and high connectivity presents new challenges, risks and threats. The collaboration provides the best security to overcome these challenges. The solution validates, limits access, automatically remediates and continuously updates the network," Mohammad Arif, Microsoft Windows 2008 product manager, Microsoft.

Compatible

HP claims to be the first in the industry with this kind of solution and will be available from May 1. It is compatible with Macintosh and Linux systems.

"Through the integration, the solution takes advantage of synergies between each company's strengths. Microsoft focuses on server and client security while ProCurve focuses on network security. The solution is a result of more than 10 years of collaboration," Hancock said.

He said ProCurve continues to deliver on its ProActive Defence strategy, which combines access control and network immunity with trusted architecture to defend against potential security threats.

Tool

Software's benefits

- Secures the business assets from authorised use by devices and users.

- Enforces roles and responsibilities based on business policies

- Protects the network and users from harmful threats and enforces system software requirements.

- Pre and post connection protection.

- Integrates with the Microsoft NAP client security architecture.

- Lower risk and higher return on investment.

By Naushad K. Cherrayil

Gulf News 2008. All rights reserved.