Cisco NAC Guest Server gives receptionist keys to the network

Cisco announced their new Cisco NAC Guest Server product today. The basic idea is to move the provisioning of guest access out to a user or users who are authorized to give visitors temporary access to a limited guest segment of the network. After the guest is provisioned, they are given a print out, email or wireless text message with their login credentials.

I like the premise of the idea, though I can't speak as to how Cisco implements it. It sounds like Cisco may only be doing access control and not really NAC (validating the endpoint against security policies) but for guest access (provided it's in a walled off network) this may be good enough. It may be confusing to the market though if buyers expect Guest Server to offer more than access control and actually do NAC.

Lets hope though that receptionist has a password set on their screen save when they walk away.