JUST is the First Jordanian University to Deploy Microsoft’s Network Access Protection for Wireless and Wired Internet Connections
NAP technology increases security, offers an easy-to-manage solution and delivers scalability for future growth
The Jordan University of Science and Technology (JUST) is the first university in Jordan to deploy the Network Access Protection (NAP) technology, a component of Microsoft Windows Server 2008, as part of its efforts to provide the university’s Internet users with a greater level of security as well as fast and easy authentication procedures.
Dr. Omar Al-Jarrah, Director of the Computer and Information Center at JUST stated, “In an effort to better serve our existing students and faculty and to continue to attract potential students, we deployed the NAP technology along with our wireless network across the campus, which is spread over 11 km², to provide a great level of security to people who would be accessing the network, and to make sure our users benefit from a fast, simple and easy authentication.”
Al Jarrah added, “The NAP technology integrated effortlessly into our Window Server 2008 system, which made it easy to administer and minimized the amount of IT staff time that would be needed to manage it.”
JUST has gained several benefits by using NAP technology. The solution helps to provide increased security for authenticating users who log on to the university’s wireless network. Also, the JUST IT department wanted to make the security component of its wireless network as easy to manage as possible, therefore with the deployment of NAP there is very minimal administrative effort involved. And finally because NAP is built into Windows Server 2008, JUST can continue to add users to the wireless network without spending money or time on extra network resources.
Zeid Shubailat, Country Manager of Microsoft Jordan said, “JUST originally based its network infrastructure on a solid platform with Windows Server 2003 and Internet Authentication Service (IAS), which enabled it to take things to the next level and leverage some of the key innovations of Windows Server 2008 such as NAP.”
He added, “It is great to see one of the country’s leading universities harness the new version of Windows Server only a few months after its release, which helped them administer and manage security and access across their widely spread campus.”
NAP is a new platform and solution that controls access to network resources based on a client computer’s identity and compliance with corporate governance policy. NAP allows network administrators to define granular levels of network access based on who a client is, the groups to which the client belongs, and the degree to which that client is compliant with corporate governance policy. If a client is not compliant, NAP provides a mechanism to automatically bring the client back into compliance and then dynamically increase its level of network access.
