Benefits of NAP

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Applies To: Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows Vista

NAP is a flexible, cost-effective solution that you can use to protect your network. NAP provides the following benefits:

Protect the network

NAP provides information, tools, and methods that help to protect the network from security risks.

  • Network health analysis. NAP allows network administrators to evaluate and track the health state of the enterprise on an ongoing basis.

  • Policy validation. NAP provides verification of the effectiveness of existing security policies and allows you to monitor the effect of new policies.

  • Identify risks. By creating a health profile for the network, NAP allows you to identify and resolve potential security risks.

  • Enhanced network health. NAP improves the overall health of your network by restricting the access of noncompliant computers and remediating their health.

  • Policy compliance. NAP provides a mechanism for enforcing ongoing compliance with network health policies.

  • Access control. NAP provides an additional layer of protection and allows you to make policy decisions at the point of network access.

Minimize cost and complexity

Because NAP is built into the Windows operating system, it is cost-effective and less complex to deploy than other solutions.

  • Automate policy enforcement. NAP clients are automatically granted full or restricted access based on settings that you define.

  • Automate client remediation. Computers that are noncompliant with network health policies can be automatically brought into compliance. This can be implemented no matter if noncompliant computers have their access restricted.

  • Leverage built-in features. NAP allows you to leverage existing services and protocols used on the network.

  • Leverage existing infrastructure. By providing a choice of enforcement methods, NAP can integrate easily into your existing infrastructure.

  • Add new features easily. NAP allows you to easily introduce new health requirements or change the scope of existing requirements.

Implement an extensible solution

NAP is a standards-based solution with many partners providing extensions to its functionality.

  • Leverage technology standards. The SoH protocol used by NAP has been published as a Trusted Network Connect (TNC) specification. This helps to ensure interoperability across vendors and network technologies.

  • Choose from multiple vendors. NAP allows you to integrate access controls across multiple vendors in areas such as client security, update management, networking, and system integration.