Cisco Cisco Secure Access Control System 5.2 Data Sheet
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Data Sheet
Cisco Secure Access Control System 5.3
Cisco
®
Secure Access Control System (ACS) ties together an enterprise’s network
access policy and identity strategy. Cisco Secure ACS is the world’s most trusted
enterprise access and policy platform, deployed by 80 percent of Fortune 500
companies.
enterprise access and policy platform, deployed by 80 percent of Fortune 500
companies.
A core component of the Cisco TrustSec
®
solution, Cisco Secure ACS is a highly sophisticated policy platform
providing RADIUS and TACACS+ services. It supports the increasingly complex policies needed to meet today's
new demands for access control management and compliance. Cisco Secure ACS provides central management
of access policies for device administration and wireless, wired 802.1x, and remote (VPN) network access
scenarios. Figure 1 shows the Cisco 1121 Access Control System.
Figure 1. Cisco 1121 Secure Access Control System
Product Overview
With the ever-increasing reliance on enterprise networks to perform daily job routines and the increasing number of
methods available to access today’s networks, security breaches and uncontrolled user access are of primary
methods available to access today’s networks, security breaches and uncontrolled user access are of primary
concern among enterprises. Network security officers and administrators need solutions that support flexible
authentication and authorization policies that are tied not only to a user’s identity, but also to context such as the
authentication and authorization policies that are tied not only to a user’s identity, but also to context such as the
network access type, time of day, and the security of the machine used to access the network. Further, there is a
need to effectively audit network use, monitor corporate compliance, and gain broad visibility into policies and
activities across the network.
Cisco Secure ACS provides the policy control for the Cisco Self Defending Network architecture, an architecture
that protects your business by identifying, preventing, and adapting to threats from inside and outside the
company. Cisco Secure ACS is a highly scalable, high-performance access policy system that centralizes device
administration, authentication, and user access policy and reduces the management and support burden for these
functions.
Features and Benefits
Cisco Secure ACS 5.3 serves as a Policy Administration Point (PAP) and Policy Decision Point (PDP) for policy-
based access control, offering a large set of identity management capabilities, including:
●
A powerful, attribute-driven rules-based policy model that addresses complex policy needs in a flexible
manner
●
A lightweight, web-based graphical user interface (GUI) with intuitive navigation and workflow