Network access control (NAC) is set to become one of the security channel’s key battlegrounds as resellers move to exploit the sector’s growth potential.

According to Infonetics Research, the global NAC market grew 16 per cent sequentially in the first quarter of 2008, hitting $62.7m (£32m). The market watcher predicts NAC will continue to surge over the next five years, despite the recent disappearance of some early NAC vendors.

With preliminary reports suggesting NAC manufacturers are enjoying an even better Q2, UK VARs are battling it out to gain first-mover advantage.

Sophos partner Foursys has run 15 NAC workshops since entering the market some eight months ago and intends to become a leader in the sector.

Paul Prior, managing director of Foursys, said: “We have invited prospects to our workshops and have given them a demonstration of what NAC can do on their own PCs. They leave quite chastened and we have generated a fair bit of business out of it.”

Foursys is also offering to supply services for other Sophos partners.

Prior said users are increasingly concerned about the threat posed to networks by guests, such as external consultants. “The market needs education, but now we have done that, customers are starting to place orders and we can be a leader in this area,” he added.

However, Crispin Pikes, chief executive of VAR Sysec Security Group, claimed NAC would not take off until 2009. “It is down to the big vendors having the time to invest resources in NAC,” he said.