This combination of pre- and post-access awareness allows the end-point agent to adjust to dynamic changes in policies as well as to changes in the host system's compliance over time. You can also create profiles for custom applications, so if you require specific configurations of custom applications Sophos will allow you to alert and report on those characteristics.

Policy creation and modification is the most complex aspect of policy-based management. Current systems tend to provide detailed and therefore complex views of policies. This is the area ripest for significant improvement in manageability and a breakthrough in human interface design. The inclusion of one-button policies for typical requirements would be a good start.

Agent's-eye view

As I've emphasized in previous reviews, the reporting subsystem of a policy-based network is critical. It is the primary avenue for understanding the current state of your end points and infrastructure, and a key to the ongoing management of the entire network. The Sophos NAC Advanced system includes a comprehensive reporting system that provides both at-a-glance and in-depth reports for the knowledge that the system holds, such as overall compliance status and granular compliance reports based on application, policy, and assessment details.

The reporting system is effective, but it relies exclusively on information provided by the agents, so it has limited visibility into network activity as a component of the reports. By integrating Sophos NAC Advanced with an IDS/IPS, Sophos could extend the reach in an important direction, enabling identification of zero-day events and unexpected network activity to trigger alerting, quarantine, and administrator action. After such a discovery, hooks into an IDS/IPS could also be used to trigger a rescan by all agents to determine characteristics of the impacted systems.

Sophos has focused on providing a system that integrates with a broad range of Windows systems and an even broader range of network elements. The solution provides assessment and remediation for non-Sophos subsystems such as third-party anti-virus agents and other security components, and it integrates into standards-based environments such as 802.1x as well as more proprietary environments such as Cisco NAC.

Sophos NAC Advanced is a solid approach to protecting Windows systems in an enterprise environment. It's a good fit for organizations concerned mainly with the security status of Windows end points. With the growth of both Mac OS X and Linux in the enterprise, its current lack of support for these platforms may be an issue for those seeking to install policy-based networking. In addition, the product's focus on end points without engaging network components will leave at least some information unassessed in the process of applying and enforcing policy. Organizations aiming to gain granular control over both hosts and visibility into network traffic will need to look at integrating Sophos with network-based control systems or more network-oriented alternatives such as Cisco NAC.