802.1x is SLOWLY making it's way into large enterprise deployments. Generally this has started on the wireless side, because most wireless equipment is relatively new and the devices connecting to wireless APs are mostly intelligent devices with software stacks that can support 802.1x.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the idea of having to do OS reconfigurations on all the workstations and servers is out of the question in an organization this large. Also legacy equipment like printers, networked photocopiers & even NAS devices make it largely unfeasable at the moment.
The only hope for 802.1x is to slowly upgrade all the switches and legacy equipment over time to 802.1x capable devices, this could take years.
We have been looking at 802.1x for way in the future. The problem is that it's a very heterogeneous environment with literally 100s of switches (core, aggregate & edge) already deployed. How do you get all those old network printers to do 802.1x. Nevermind the fact that going around and re-configuring thousands of servers and desktops is really out of the question.
We could recommend upgrades to the core switching fabric but anything that would require upgrades for the edge devices is out of the question.
We're talking about 75,000 end user Ethernet ports/jacks.
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That's quite the setup.
How would you handle NAS devices?
How would you handle network printers?
Niether of these class of devices generally has PPPoE capabilities.
802.1x is SLOWLY making it's way into large enterprise deployments. Generally this has started on the wireless side, because most wireless equipment is relatively new and the devices connecting to wireless APs are mostly intelligent devices with software stacks that can support 802.1x.
As I mentioned in a previous post, the idea of having to do OS reconfigurations on all the workstations and servers is out of the question in an organization this large. Also legacy equipment like printers, networked photocopiers & even NAS devices make it largely unfeasable at the moment.
The only hope for 802.1x is to slowly upgrade all the switches and legacy equipment over time to 802.1x capable devices, this could take years.
We have been looking at 802.1x for way in the future. The problem is that it's a very heterogeneous environment with literally 100s of switches (core, aggregate & edge) already deployed. How do you get all those old network printers to do 802.1x. Nevermind the fact that going around and re-configuring thousands of servers and desktops is really out of the question. We could recommend upgrades to the core switching fabric but anything that would require upgrades for the edge devices is out of the question. We're talking about 75,000 end user Ethernet ports/jacks.