Provisioning network access for contractors and guests

Are you seeing your traditional network boundaries blurred as contractors, business partners and/or customers require access to your network and resources from inside the LAN; from devices that are largely outside your control?

You are not alone; providing such access has significant business value in terms of productivity and competitiveness, but carries great risk. You need to be confident that your security policies and infrastructure can effectively protect your critical business resources against the myriad viruses, worms, malware and spyware that could be introduced into the heart of your network.

Instead of traditional perimeter security where a user is either trusted or untrusted, you need a solution that enables you to build virtual zones of trust' based not just on the user's identity, but which takes account of the device they're using, its compliance with your desktop policy, the access method and location. This allows you to strike the right risk balance for every session, giving users the access they need whilst maintaining the security of your systems and other network users.

Data Integration can offer a range of Access Control and Identity Management solutions to solve these issues. Different approaches include:

• 802.1x based solutions
• Appliance based access control
• Agent based compliance and enforcement
• A combination of the above

We can advise you which approach is most appropriate for your circumstances. In many cases we can help you protect your core assets and prevent the threats with the most potential for damage without the need for you to implement full 802.1x authentication.