ProCurve Networking by HP today announced with Microsoft a solution to protect networks with open, secure, standards-based interoperability that integrates ProCurve’s trusted infrastructure, policy management system and Microsoft’s Network Access Protection (NAP) technology.

ProCurve Identity Driven Manager (IDM) policy management tool is now compatible with Microsoft® NAP technology, providing customised network access policies for admission of users and clients across both wired and wireless environments.

“Having ProCurve switches, access points and IDM that complement Microsoft’s NAP architecture provides customers with robust network security,” said Mauricio Sanchez, chief security architect, ProCurve Networking by HP. “Through this integration, ProCurve continues to deliver on its ProActive Defense strategy, which combines access control and network immunity with trusted architecture to defend against potential security threats.”

Calvin Choe, director of Technical Business Development in the Enterprise Networking Group at Microsoft, said, “The integration of Microsoft Network Access Protection and ProCurve networking products provides customers with a network security solution to protect their information assets.”

ProCurve IDM provides network administrators with the ability to centrally define and apply policy-based network access rights that allow the network to adapt automatically to the needs of users and devices as they connect, thereby enforcing network security while providing appropriate access to network users and devices.

Microsoft® Network Access Protection is a policy enforcement technology built into the Windows Vista® and Windows® Server 2008 operating systems that allows customers to better protect network assets from unhealthy computers by enforcing compliance with network health policies. Microsoft’s Network Access Protection technology is available with Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 and will be available with Windows XP SP3.

“ProCurve is making network access control easier to integrate in enterprise networks and the beauty of Microsoft’s NAP is in the simplicity of deployment,” said Joel Snyder, senior partner at Opus One, a consulting and information services company based in Tucson, Ariz. “ProCurve’s IDM integrates cleanly with Microsoft’s NAP and provides security without complicating the deployment. Together it’s a win-win situation.”