With the rise of hybrid work models and the growing number of IoT devices, the need for secure, scalable, and adaptive network access has become critical. Traditional Network Access Control (NAC) systems, designed for on-premises environments, focused on device visibility, policy compliance, and access control. However, modern security requirements far exceed the capabilities of these legacy systems.

Limitations of Traditional NAC

Once effective, NAC systems now struggle to scale, adapt to emerging threats, and support contemporary environments. Their limitations can be grouped into two main categories:

1. User Access to Applications

After authentication, traditional NAC grants users full network access without restricting it to specific resources. These systems also fail to monitor user behavior post-login, creating critical security gaps. The lack of granular access control contradicts zero-trust principles and increases organizational vulnerability to cyber threats. Additionally, without integrated data protection tools, information remains exposed once a user or device gains network access.

In enterprise environments, multiple tools are often deployed: NAC for authorization, SD-WAN for performance optimization, DLP devices for data protection, and APM tools for monitoring. However, these solutions lose effectiveness in remote or hybrid settings. Organizations must manage separate access systems for on-premises networks and VPNs, resulting in fragmented policies, dispersed across non-integrated consoles, complicating oversight and weakening overall security.

2. Protection of IoT/OT Devices

While the rise of IoT/OT devices originally drove NAC adoption, effective management of these devices remains a challenge. Cameras, thermostats, and industrial sensors often lack sufficient identifiers, making accurate classification or access restriction difficult. Many devices do not support modern authentication methods, forcing administrators to rely on weak mechanisms such as MAC filtering, which can easily be bypassed.

Most IoT devices perform specialized functions and exchange data only with designated control systems. Traditional NAC cannot automatically detect these relationships, complicating proper network segmentation and increasing configuration risk. OT devices, including industrial equipment and robotic systems, face similar issues: they operate on closed platforms and do not support NAC agents, limiting protection capabilities.

Applying zero-trust principles to applications and IoT/OT devices is therefore critical for threat prevention and secure network access. Traditional NAC, however, fails to meet these requirements and creates additional blind spots.

From NAC to UZTNA

Universal Zero Trust Network Access (UZTNA) integrates the core functions of NAC into a broader, more adaptive security system, addressing the needs of modern organizations with hybrid work, IoT devices, and cloud technologies.

The Netskope One platform implements UZTNA by collecting comprehensive risk telemetry and applying zero-trust principles to ensure consistent authentication, authorization, and context-aware access control. This approach eliminates implicit trust by granting minimal necessary access based on context, device posture, and location, while preventing data breaches. UZTNA simplifies access management and ensures consistent visibility, performance, and protection across on-premises, remote, and IoT environments.

Key Components of Netskope One UZTNA:

1. Secure, Optimized User Access

The Netskope One Client protects both on-site and remote users through a unified management system and policies, ensuring stable and high-performance access. Unlike static NAC, Netskope One Private Access implements UZTNA, dynamically adjusting access based on identity, risk, behavior, and device posture, reducing the potential for lateral movement. Built-in threat and data-loss protection ensures consistent security for all users as traffic passes through the Netskope One cloud platform. Netskope One DEM provides end-to-end visibility of performance, while optimized SD-WAN routing maintains high throughput in distributed environments.

2. Secure IoT/OT Access

Netskope Device Intelligence combined with the Netskope SASE Gateway leverages AI/ML to automatically detect IoT/OT devices and assess associated risks. Policies for SSE, SD-WAN, and SD-LAN are dynamically applied to enforce real-time protection. Any anomalous device traffic triggers elevated risk scores and immediate isolation from critical network segments.

3. Secure Wireless Access

Netskope Zero Trust SIM enables global connectivity to over 400 cellular networks, extending zero-trust principles to IoT/OT devices, including industrial machinery and robots that cannot run a Netskope client. Managed 4G/5G SASE subscriptions provide secure, clientless remote access and IoT/OT protection for troubleshooting.

So, traditional NAC is increasingly obsolete in a world dominated by cloud computing, hybrid work, and numerous IoT/OT devices. Netskope offers not merely a replacement but a fundamentally new approach to building a digital environment without implicit trust. UZTNA meets the needs of modern organizations by providing context-aware access, adaptive policies, and proactive protection, giving confidence in the security of both users and devices, regardless of location.