16.7. Rollout a Limited Production

After you successfully complete the pilot implementation, you need to move on to a limited product rollout. How you define "limited" can vary, depending on the size, complexity, and structure of your organization. Some organizations focus on specific locations as a starting point for their NAC deployment. Other organizations focus on specific user groups, independent of location.

Regardless of your approach, best practices dictate focusing on a specific subset of the whole organization as an extended trial. This limited rollout can help you work out any issues related to deployment — whether organizational or technical.

Try to focus on a subset of your environment that can give you the best possible cross section of devices, users, and network infrastructure equipment, allowing you to minimize the number of surprises when you move on to full production. Begin the limited rollout by only evaluating policies at first — so that you can correct issues before you end up limiting a user's access when he or she just wants to do his or her job.