4/3/2006 -- Microsoft Corp.'s Network Access Protection (NAP) program -- a rival and quasi-complement to Cisco's own Network Admission Control (NAC) effort -- last week gained an important new supporter -- Alcatel.

Alcatel last week announced that its Access Guardian feature set and Alcatel OmniVista 2770 Quarantine Manager will support Microsoft's NAP standards. Alcatel plans to deliver its first integrations with NAP next year, in tandem with Microsoft Windows Server "Longhorn," the successor to Windows Server 2003.

Analysts are less than wowed. If anything, they say, Alcatel's NAP gambit is of most potential benefit to Microsoft. "Alcatel's integration will be great news when the technology finally gets here, but the short-term impact is virtually nil," writes Steven Schuchart, senior analyst for enterprise infrastructure with Current Analysis. "[I]ntegrating with NAP is unlikely, by itself, to be a major competitive differentiator, because every infrastructure vendor will have to deliver this sort of integration to remain competitive."

And that's the point, says Schuchart: If more vendors follow Alcatel's lead, NAP support will become a must-have checklist feature for enterprise competitors. "Competitors that have not made an announcement supporting NAP need to do so before it becomes a point in sales situations. Currently, it is not an overriding concern, but it will become more and more important as we get closer to Microsoft's release of Longhorn," he comments.

As for NAC proponent Cisco, Schuchart says the networking giant should point to its "own policy enforcement efforts outside of integration with Microsoft's NAP efforts. This will help to show technological leadership." -Stephen Swoyer