Feb 9, 2023. By Jishnu T Jojo
Over the past few years, mobile devices connecting to corporate and private networks have grown exponentially. Some tools that can give visibility, access control, and compliance capabilities are needed to reinforce the network security infrastructure. This has increased the security risks for the organization's resources. AIOps, or artificial intelligence for IT operations, is the term used to describe systems that gather and analyze network and device monitoring and health information to offer deep visibility, intelligent problem diagnosis, and root cause investigation of security-related issues. To stop insecure machines from infecting the network, enterprises need a NAC system that can either refuse non-compliant devices access or grant them access to computational resources with restrictions. NAC devices can also manage massive enterprise networks that include various device types linked to the network. To keep away certain unwanted activities, AIOPs and NAC together act as security keys. What is NAC? A security solution known as network access control is used to restrict access to devices that follow network security policies or prohibit unauthorized users and devices from connecting to a private network. Network Admission Control is another name for it. In an IT context, it oversees network management, compliance, and access control that implements security policies. Control who accesses the business network, control user access to the applications and resources they desire and allow guests, partners, and contractors to use the network as needed but limit their usage; some of the key benefits of the NAC include the ability to divide people into groups according to job function and to create access controls based on roles. By adding NAC with AI, it will become a super security wall to prevent unusual traffic.
Why move away from traditional NAC? NAC was created without any knowledge of the volume that networks will soon have to handle. It was not designed to handle a network that needs increased openness to support everything from headless IoT devices to trustworthy distant workers and customers who authorize guest access. Other parts of the network have adopted machine learning and AI to improve workflows and efficiency when new devices and security scenarios emerge. Traditional NAC solutions rely on on-premises hardware created using monolithic code bases, which makes them difficult to set up and integrate into a system and gives them inherent restrictions. As a result, they have become more difficult to deploy and manage, prohibitively expensive to scale, and less reliable in this new world of networking. And as the world moves more and more toward cloud-based systems, they lose significance.
AIOPs and NAC The NAC system is the first point of access into the system from which credentials may be followed throughout the network when a user or device presents an identification or certificate to authenticate credentials. Together, AIOps and this knowledge can be utilized for several advantageous purposes. When evaluating AI-powered solutions that can fully exploit cloud computing, IT leaders need to consider a few key factors. First, an individual AI solution must be provided for each part of the network to prevent fragmentation. Look for technologies that can compile the network's data into one place for analysis. 1. User and device identity The network may then allocate the proper resources and bandwidth once a user has been detected by the system and the device they are using, such as a laptop that won't consume too many resources but will need more bandwidth. With so many gadgets and services linked to the network, this may completely transform the game. 2. Safety Inspections AI can uncover trends by analyzing the vast amounts of data collected from the user's initial login through their online activity. This is important for managing the network and bandwidth allotment and spotting suspicious activity. It is possible to recognize a compromised device right away. An AI-powered NAC can immediately change the user at the network's edge into a quarantined state. Compared to a firewall approach, where compromised traffic gets to travel to the firewall before the quarantine kicks in, this is a significant security improvement. 3. Problem-solving and ensuring consumer satisfaction A network issue might occur anywhere along a user's path, from the client to the cloud. Therefore, you must be able to follow a user's experience throughout their interaction with the network to troubleshoot. Combining NAC with AIOps gives you the data and tools to evaluate a user's journey and experience, whether evaluating the voice call quality or figuring out why their device won't connect. It is essential to integrate NAC with AIOps to streamline deployment and operations, speed up proactive issue detection and resolution, and enhance network security posture. A new level of protection and control is added when AI and machine learning are combined with the deep insight your NAC solution can provide. To learn more about AIOPs, please visit the Algomox AIOps platform page.