The Services Spin

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Tim Hebert, CEO of Atrion Networking, a solution provider in Warwick, R.I., discusses services opportunities around NAC.

ASSESS THE SITUATION: Services is a very profitable segment of what we do with NAC, and clients are starting to understand the need to do network assessments before deployment. That's because NAC is not like installing a router or switch, which touches only a part of the network. With NAC, you're touching every part of the network. Some of the assessment services focus on what needs to change in the network in order to support NAC. These changes sometimes include redesigning the network infrastructure. The services are based on figuring out how the network is structured, how security will lay on top and what access rights will be granted to different parts of the organization. With NAC, we're trying to control where users go and what resources they can access once they get on the network.

SCOPE IT OUT: NAC projects can be very large in scope, and they touch a lot of devices, which means a lot of fine-tuning is sometimes required. To minimize problems, we tend to start a little wider when deploying NAC: Instead of locking down the network tightly, we set the NAC solution loosely, and then go back and retune it. That way, over the course of the implementation, the network controls gradually become tighter.

Services engagements can range from a half-day to four- to five-day assessments, and we're averaging 45 [percent] to 55 percent margins on the services work. And then there's implementation work that comes after, which is also quite intensive from a services standpoint. We have four or five projects going on right now, with an average cost of $50,000 to 60,000 each, and we also do a ton of support services, helping client do changes and handling break/fix support.

MANAGE EXPECTATIONS: In addition to getting your staff up to speed on things like switching and routing and setting up VLANs, it's important for integrators to be aware of customers' expectations for NAC. Right now, everyone wants to 'own' NAC and have the infrastructure on their premises, and as a result, a NAC managed service might not catch on for a while. Most organizations want to install NAC in their environments, much as they would core switching and router infrastructure. However, the setup, tuning and day-to-day administration around NAC can be a burden on smaller organizations, and we're starting to get feedback from these people that they'd like a better management method. I would imagine that a NAC managed service might eventually have enough of a market to be commercially viable.

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