This guide is one in a series of planning and design guides that clarify and streamline the planning and design process for Microsoft® infrastructure technologies. Each guide in the series addresses a unique infrastructure technology or scenario. These guides include the following topics:
Defining the technical decision flow (flow chart) through the planning process.
Describing the decisions to be made and the commonly available options to consider in making the decisions.
Relating the decisions and options to the business in terms of cost, complexity, and other characteristics.
Framing the decision in terms of additional questions to the business to ensure a comprehensive understanding of the appropriate business landscape.
The guides in this series are intended to complement and augment the product documentation.
This guide is designed to provide a consistent structure for addressing the decisions and activities most critical to the successful implementation of the Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) infrastructure.
Each decision or activity is subdivided into four elements:
Background on the decision or activity, including context setting and general considerations.
Typical options or tasks to perform for the activity.
A reference section evaluating such items as cost, complexity, and manageability to the options or tasks.
Questions for the business that may have a significant impact on the decisions to be made.
Table 1 lists the full range of characteristics discussed in the evaluation sections. Only those characteristics relevant to a particular option or task are included in each section.
Table 1. Architectural Characteristics
|
Characteristic |
Description |
|
Complexity |
The complexity of this option relative to other options |
|
Cost |
The initial setup and sustained cost of this option |
|
Fault tolerance |
How the decision supports the resiliency of the infrastructure (This ultimately affects the availability of the system.) |
|
Performance |
How the option affects the performance of the infrastructure |
|
Scalability |
The impact the option has on the scalability of the infrastructure |
|
Security |
Reflects whether the option has a positive or negative impact on overall infrastructure security |
Each design option is compared against the above characteristics and is subjectively rated to provide a relative weighting of the option against the characteristic. The options are not explicitly rated against each other, as there are too many unknowns about the business drivers to accurately compare them.
The ratings are relative and take two forms:
Cost and complexity are rated on a scale of High, Medium, and Low.
The remaining characteristics are rated on the scale listed in Table 2.
Table 2. Impact on Characteristic
|
Symbol |
Definition |
|
↑ |
Positive effect on the characteristic |
|
→ |
No effect on the characteristic or no comparison basis |
|
↓ |
Negative effect on the characteristic |
The characteristics are presented either as two-column or three-column tables. The two-column table is used when the characteristic is applicable to all options or when no options are available—for example, when performing a task.
The three-column table is used to present an option, the description, and the effect—in that order—for the characteristic.
This document is primarily for security specialists, network architects, and other IT pros and consultants who plan or oversee the deployment of network infrastructure technologies, servers, and client computers in an enterprise environment. It is written for individuals in the following roles:
Security specialists. Individuals who focus on how to improve information security across an organization. Security specialists determine the capabilities, limitations, and technical requirements of security technologies and help their organizations most effectively implement them.
Network architects and planners. Individuals who envision the overall information technology (IT) architecture and drive the organization to implement the best solutions available, thereby addressing the requirements of individual business units and the organization as a whole.
Consultants. Individuals who work with organizations of all sizes to help them understand, plan, and implement the most effective technical solutions that address the organization’s business requirements.
Business analysts and business decision makers. Individuals who determine business requirements for each project under consideration and ensure that nothing is implemented unless it helps the organization meet its mission efficiently or more effectively.