NAC

One of my favorite bloggers, Rob Newby has been ranting about business, technology and compliance the past few days.
He is making one major point - NAC and Firewalls will not last forever.

Although I am certain that his posting will uproar some of the vendors, and some of the technical readers as well, I happen to agree with Rob.

Technology evolves. It changes. It adopts.
Most importantly, it must change. It should adopt. If it did not, we would still be riding rock carts like the Flintstones.

And I must admit I prefer heated, leather coated, soft seats, where I can listen to an V8 roar at my willing. Knowing that some years down the line, the V8 will be replaced by an electric engine.

With IT, it is the same thing. As it is with security. The thing on your lap is not an ENIAC, mind you!

If you take a look at the firewall, it is easy to understand as well. The port controlling (stateless) FW from the 80s is still in place in today firewalls, but is only a small part of the package. Add statefull inspection, AV&AS, webfiltering, VPN and a coffee machine, and you have the UTM of today.

With NAC, the same thing will happen. It will end up as a part of the internal security systems only. And some years down the line you no longer realize that what was key technology in 2007, happens to be only one of many technologies that takes care of your ICT systems.

The challenge of all times in a commercial world is to be able to look beyond the buzzwords. To use your own business targets, goals and challenges when you choose your strategy.

Only when you take control yourself will you be able to control your world. If you leave the decision making to vendors and buzzwords, you will find yourself a hostage of insecurity - you will never know if you are adequately secured. And that is the point of forcing compliance and governance - to put you in control, to enable you to drive your modern, secure and up-to-date car. 

So that you do not have to keep dinosaurs as pets and kicking about in your rock cart.

There has been quite some stir in the NAC world lately. Or at least on the vendor side of things.

Now Mitchell Ashley and Alan Shimel of Stillsecure has invited Dominic Wilde of Nevis Network and Michelle McLean of ConSentry to a podcast discussion! 

Who is holding the rodder? Mike Rothman at the Security Incite is!

So - is there peace in the NAC-camp? Listen for yourself!  

Recently, there has been a raise of FUD in the blogosphere. In the beginning of the discussion of Dominic and Alan, I just laughed. I welcome any health discussion of technology.

But then they started to bring out the guns. Accusations and rocks (imaginary ones) flew, and soon thereafter more bloggers jumped in. When it all burned out, the outcome was as every time - they are both wrong, and they are both right. And they have areas of disagreement. Nothing new at all. 

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I used to work as a whore. A product whore. I went out there, lifted the rocks and preached the (current) truth. The truth of whatever vendor paid my bills. Never caring about what the client actually needed, or what would fit in the existing infrastructure. The all important matter was to sell sell sell.

And I admit, sometimes most of the sales information you got from the vendor where FUD. Even if the vendor did not give me FUD to feed the client, there where always enough information around to create the FUD myself. 

At some point I met myself in the door, and had to choose between actually helping the client, or helping the vendor to sell.

Needless to say, I did quit the selling. 

So when I read Dave Lewis ranting about vendor bullshit and FUD, I relate to it in more ways than one. And I am so happy it is not me sitting there with a HALO-playing techie. Knowing I have moved on, and actually am adding value to my clients - and not only as a nice word in the marketing materials.  

I do not believe we have seen the end to FUD, but I do believe that if we try to focus on true value, innovation and the needs of the clients, we can reduce the amount of FUD to only apply to non-serious players. 

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So Alan, Dominic, vendors out there -  technology changes, evolves and adopts all the time. It is not always easy to hang on to the changes, and follow all the new features and options and their impact. Especially when the competitor comes up with something different AND better.

To help the client choose the best tool, you do yourself a favor by focusing on the relevant issues and facts. Relevant for the client, that is.

When the FUD starts to surface, many clients do just like Dave. And some call me.

And I am on their side now.