Microsoft And Cisco Join Forces For Security

September 8th, 2006: With their gaze fixed firmly on interoperability, the two giants have released a white paper detailing how they will create a new architecture to enable their respective security technology to work together.

With a goal of providing a single sign-on to network machines running Windows Vista and Longhorn Server, the paper shows how the new architecture will enable Microsoft's Network Access Protection (NAP) and Cisco's Network Admission Control (NAC) to work together. It also details how Cisco’s embedded network security capabilities will be integrated with new technology planned for Windows Vista and Longhorn Server.

This fulfils a promise made by the two companies back in 2004 to bring their two respective architectures together, and also means that customers looking to deploy Windows Longhorn Server NAP can safely roll out Cisco's NAC now and upgrade later. Both NAP and NAC will be able to be used to protect networks from unauthorised users.

Both companies say that a beta test version of the new architecture will be available this year, while the package will be commercially release in the second half of 2007.

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