NAC Framework vs NAC Appliance??? Cisco says, Appliance is 'easier'...

jasonhumes · ‎06-16-2008

Hi

So I've recently been told by Cisco that I shouldn't be deploying the NAC framework and that they REALLY suggest the appliance instead. Can anyone provide me with some REAL reasons why I'd want to purchase more hardware from Cisco when I've already got all the necessary pieces for the Framework deployed on my network. Cisco, at this point, has not given me a good reason other than, the appliance is easier to deploy...and to me, that is a highly subjective statement. Please help. Thanks

Jason

Collin Clark · ‎06-17-2008

Jason-

Cisco tried to sell us the appliance too and we said the same thing, why? They are in business to sell :-) The one reason I can think of is the deployment would be much faster. We're going with the framework BTW.

Hope that helps.

pmccubbin · ‎06-17-2008

Jason,

From my experience the appliances are the way to go. It is just like Colin said, the deployment is much easier. What's more the testing is much easier. For instance, in a typical out-of-band solution for a wired network you could test your configuration on a single port on a single switch. This is much less invasive than the NAC framework and much easier to tune.

Just my 2 cents. Hope this helps.

Paul