6/12/2007 -- Cisco Systems Inc. has been in the forefront of network access control (NAC) since about the time that technology first became acronym-ized.

It looks like Cisco's NAC leadership might eventually pay off. Assuming customers eventually figure out the ins and outs of NAC, that is.

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First, the good news. New research from market watcher Infonetics Research suggests that 80 percent of large organizations plan to enforce NAC at the network level, while 51 percent plan to enforce it at the client. (Some will enforce NAC at both the network and the client.)

The bad news, Infonetics said, is that most customers are still confused about NAC. Many, in fact, are unsure how they will handle key aspects of NAC deployment.

"One of the major problems with the NAC market right now is that there isn't consensus on what NAC really is. Since the application of NAC is broad, almost any company who was involved in security or network infrastructure didn't have to stretch very far to label some existing product or technology 'NAC,'" said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research, in a statement. "Customers investigating NAC are likely to look at everything from host-based software solutions to entire forklift upgrades of Ethernet switching infrastructure and more than a few steps in between."

The study asked respondents to rate Cisco, Consentry, Juniper, F5, McAfee and Microsoft according to a variety of factors that impact their respective NAC strategies and visions.

While Cisco led in overall vendor perception, Infonetics says, it didn't lead in all detail categories. Respondents, for example, actually rate Microsoft higher than Cisco in terms of financial security -- but both vendors show equally poorly when it comes to pricing, Infonetics said.

On the other hand, Cisco has a commanding lead on Microsoft when it comes to user perceptions of their technology, security and services/support.

Elsewhere, Infonetics reported, one-third of respondents who plan to start using NAC next year have already deployed it in their environments.

What's the No. 1 driver cited by users who plan to use NAC? It's a tie: Respondents cited both a need to better protect corporate resources from unauthorized users, and a desire to limit the impact of threats. Users also cited a need to demonstrate policy (64 percent) or regulatory compliance (54 percent).

Finally, more than half (55 percent) of customers plan to buy in-line NAC solutions, although another 11 percent aren't sure if they'll buy in-line or out-of-band offerings.

Last year, for the record, respondents said they spent about two-thirds of their total NAC budgets on 802.1x-enabled switches. --Stephen Swoyer