The Network Applications Consortium (NAC) is a very quaint (20-30) members only not-for-profit organization whose constituents delve into specific interests, such as the latest advancements in technology and information sharing. The NAC is member ran and organized, and primary interests include collaborating with one another on specific security issues. Members also get the exclusivity of partnering with all kinds of contacts from various industries, from financial experts to energy providers to educational institutions to an assortment of other market leaders.

Members include such companies as Bechtel, Price-waterhouseCoopers, Unisys, Beoing Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson Controls and Cisco, to name a few. “The complete list of members is so impressive simply because of the wide-ranging industries the companies are involved in,” said Pamela Campagna, executive director of NAC.

NAC recently held their Fall 2006 Conference hosted by NAC member State Farm Insurance in Bloomington, Ill. The conference focused on assessing the approaches to classifying data for Information Security and Privacy by looking at various product architectures, services offerings and customer experiences.

The conference featured member collaboration sessions and vendor presentations, which addressed the conference theme “Data Classification for Information Security and Privacy: Can We Find the Silver Bullet?” Members also explored critical success factors based on case studies, processes and actions required in order to support classification servicesand application/utilities used for data classification.

Technical representatives from Abrevity, EMC, HP, IBM, Identity Engines, Index Engines, Microsoft, Oracle, Percussion Softwareand Quidillum, were on hand, joined by analysts from RampRate Sourcing Advisors and The Burton Group.

Fred Wettling, Bechtel Fellow, Technology Strategy Manager and NAC Co-Chairman, said, “As technology emerges, as companies and standards mature, our questions are ‘what do we do about all this?’ Alliance partners allow us to understand what’s ready for prime time, what road to go down and what paths to avoid. Companies can talk candidly and say they’ve tried something that did not work, and tell their NAC colleagues ‘do not try this.’

“The NAC is a well-kept secret. Membership diversity is extremely important in this organization. We are not a group focused on one product being better than the other, rather, we try to figure out what will be important in the future,” stated Wettling.

“This conference provides a unique and intimate venue for customers and vendors to discuss critical topics and solutions. A lot of companies focus on their vertical, but there are the same issues appearing in other industry segments, so by aggregating the combined views of a bunch of different industries, NAC provides a richness and depth that you don’t get from other collaborations activities,” Wettling said.

For more information about the NAC, visit NAC at www.netapps.org