Through the experience of running our managed network service, we’ve found that mobility is mandatory for any modern business. Mobility allows employees to work anytime, anywhere with the help of the internet. Employee productivity is on the rise due to working on mobile devices. What we’ve seen from providing Ottawa network support, is the new network trend of ‘Bring Your Own Devices’ (BYOD). This is where employees use their personal devices to access the office network and work. The emerging BYOD trend is bringing on challenges of its own.
With BYOD, we allow hundreds of unique combinations of device platforms, OS, and applications to enter a company’s private network. Most are unmanaged devices with no way to know what kind of threat they may be bringing in. Our experience as a major Ottawa network support service is has shown that not all device users update their OS to the latest build. Not all of them are concerned about security, not all employees are going to check apps for their legitimacy or use a lock screen with their own personal code. Apps may be infected with malware and then installed into a device. Not every managed network service provider understands the risks BYOD comes with and how it can lead to an attack surface in the network.
The Importance of Implementing NAC on Network with BYOD
As a company that specializes in Ottawa network support services, we understand that we’re responsible for security as well as maintaining network availability and reliability. What a managed service provider does has evolved. Part of that evolution means implementing Network Access Control for companies that allow BYOD. Network Access Control (NAC), is a system used to manage device access into the network. The administrator can create policies base on the platform, OS, Services, configuration, and other attributes supported by the NAC product. NAC is capable of assessing devices that are trying to gain access into the network. It will give the device permission based on its compliance to the personal policy that’s been configured for that company. For example, compliant devices are allowed to enter the network with full access while non-compliant devices can enter the network with limited access. NAC detects devices that are potentially malicious and they are blocked from the network completely.
We are committed to provide better Ottawa network support and managed network service by integrating operation flexibility and security. We believe implementation of the NAC product in a business network can enhance control over BYOD without disrupting business productivity.
