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NAC vs ASA Built-in Feature

mcroft
Level 1
Level 1

Hi,

I am looking a secure solution for around 25 users - to remote access into our datacentre.

Obvioudly a secure tunnel is needed (SSL/Ipsec), BUT ALSO, i want a solution to provide 'posture assesment' of sorts.

Now, NAC is very expensive for this small type of smallish network.

I have been looking at the ASA55** feature "Pre-Connection Posture Assessment" with the Cisco Secure Desktop :-

It offers "Host integrity verification checking seeks to detect the presence of antivirus software, personal firewall software, and Windows service packs on the endpoint system prior to granting network access."

I think this is PERFECT !!

Can anyone please tell me how this differs from NAC and would it survice ??

Thank you.

P.S I intend to use the IPS module too, to ensure data passing the ASA will be "scrubed" clean.

1 Reply 1

Farrukh Haroon
VIP Alumni
VIP Alumni

The Cisco Secure Desktop feature is only available with SSL VPNs, and not with IPSEC. If you plan to use ONLY SSL VPNs then CSD is a reasonable solution for small setups.

For IPSEC endpoints you need to go with NAC.

Regards

Farrukh

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