802.1X sounds simple enough. Enable the switch ports, set up Radius and supplicants, and you're ready to go. But the reality is that common network scenarios are made vastly more difficult where 802.1x is deployed.

This is good news for multihypervisor shops. Microsoft pushed out the beta of VMM today, which includes management support of VMware.

The Trusted Computing Group's Trusted Network Connect announced Metadata Access Point, IF-MAP, a specification to aggregate and propagate events from multiple sources. IF-MAP is the best thing since sliced bread.

Vizioncore announced availability today of vCharter Pro as an enterprise-class performance monitoring and management solution for ESX shops.

Windows XP Service Pack 3 is coming on April 29, which means NAP will be coming to an OS near you. Already, Hewlett-Packard has announced it will integrate network access protection with its ProCurve identity driven management product, which provides identity-based management to network access. We can expect more vendors to follow suit.

Nimsoft and Indicative Software, both tested in our APM Rolling Review, came together earlier this month as Nimsoft acquired the company and added its synthetic monitoring to the Nimsoft portfolio. The products are complementary, and the merger makes sense. With only about $5M in revenue, it was difficult for a standalone synthetic transaction product like Indicative to survive in the competitive APM market.

Starting at 11 a.m. on April 22, InformationWeek's virtual trade show will open its doors. We have fielded a list of presenters that cover various topics surrounding NAC.

In an effort to fight back against a massive amount of phishing attacks against PayPal, the e-commerce company recently announced that it will soon force customers who want to use its service to upgrade to browsers that have the latest phishing protection, such as Internet Explorer 7, Firefox 2, and Opera 9. Additionally, PayPal also is working diligently with ISP's to filter fraudulent phishing e-mails by dropping messages that lack a valid digital signature. But can you believe that some are crying foul?

Pano Logic's virtual desktop solution (VDS) is getting a major rev update to v2.0, picking up WAN, wireless, and improved USB support for its tiny, shiny VDI client.

As I go through my mailbox and sort through the 1,000 different security products that I'm seemingly pitched on every week, I couldn't help but smile as I reflected on the fact that some my favorite, and most useful tools, are free.

While I didn't get as much time on the floor as I would have liked, I think one of the more interesting themes from the RSA show is Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). Ultimately, all the security products available, all the best practices, all the sessions, directly impact GRC.

The biggest news out of ManageFusion so far? Symantec bought AppStream last night and is rolling 'em into the newly formed "Endpoint Virtualization" group.

One of the themes coming from RSA and from vendors in the last few months is the notion that virtual servers, whether running on a hypervisor or not, are somehow more at risk that physical servers. I don't buy it entirely because servers and applications that are virtualized tend to be in tightly controlled data centers. If your data center is secure, so are your servers. Why treat virtualized servers special?

Here's a follow-up with VMware on the company's new Lifecycle Manager add-on for ESX.

The key to a successful marketplace is the free flow of goods. Important factors include not only the goods themselves, but also information about those goods and a means to exchange them.

J. Gerry Purdy, VP and chief analyst at Frost & Sullivan, recently wrote a short article about Strata8 Networks. The basic concept of Strata8's system is that it's a microcellular operator within a wireless carrier's larger network. The other important component is its PBX integration, delivered by Tango Networks.

Most of us are aware of how various sites and ad networks data mine the cookies on your computer to produce targeted ads on Web sites that you frequent, but not many are aware of how pervasively ISPs are starting to participate in the process of selling your Web-surfing habits to the ad networks.

Happy Monday -- I'm catching a plane out to the Altiris ManageFusion conference in Vegas.

A little-mentioned press release passed through my mail last week. NetClarity was assigned a patent titled Proactive network security system to protect against hackers, patent No. 7,346,922. I read through the patent, and I have to say it aptly describes a NAC product and function that has been available before the filing of July 26, 2004. I wouldn't be surprised if NetClarity starts beating the pavement trying to drum up license fees.

They say girls develop much faster than boys. At the very least they appear to be quicker on the uptake when it comes to avoiding getting duped on the Internet.

We all know how it starts. You said, 'sure, just this once.' Someone said, 'psst, buddy, try this out.'

I must admit, I frequent the New York Times technology section. No, not for the engaging technical news, but for the good technology business-related info. Occasionally, I'll stumble across some interesting security-related topics, and today was one of those days.