Security threats Toolkit

McAfee releases NAC product suite

Tom Espiner ZDNet.co.uk

Published: 20 Oct 2008 17:22 BST

Security vendor McAfee has brought out a network access control (NAC) unification offering, which will contain one new product.

McAfee said on Monday that its Unified Secure Access suite "links endpoint and network security with access control and compliance".

"Enterprises have struggled to deploy current NAC solutions," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst of network security at Infonetics Research, in a McAfee statement. "McAfee's Unified Secure Access keeps management simple, enabling customers to handle more scenarios."

The only new product in the Unified Secure Access suite is McAfee NAC Appliance, a pared down intrusion prevention system (IPS) due out in the first quarter of 2009. McAfee said its Unified Secure Access suite can be centrally managed through McAfee's e-Policy Orchestrator product, and can include McAfee Network Security Platform 5.1, a more expensive and fully featured IPS product than NAC Appliance.

Current UK pricing and availability details were not available at the time of writing for the Unified Secure Access suite. However, in the US the McAfee NAC module for Network Security Platform is available as a software add-on, starting at $2,300 (£1,300). The Network Security Platform Appliance IPS starts at $10,995. McAfee's Network Access Control endpoint product is priced at $47.98 per node.