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Products rely on SSL rather than IPSec.
A new breed of products is emerging to rival traditional Internet-based VPN offerings that give remote users and business partners secure access to corporate networks.
The IP Security (IPSec) VPN alternatives promise to save customers vast amounts of administrative time by using easily configurable hardware and requiring little or no software on remote machines.
Among the companies pushing the products - which are based on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology found in most Web browsers - are start-ups Neoteris, NetSilica and Netilla Networks.While each newcomer is unique, they share a common goal of making VPNs easy to use and they all are passing on IPSec.
One customer says it took a half day to install and configure NetScreen Technologies' IPSec VPN client software on each of roughly 300 remote PCs. Switching to technology made by Neotens meant the same remote users could access the network securely by using their Web browser, says Patrick Wilson, director of IT for Finisar, an optical components maker in Sunny-- vale, Calif. "It's not a be-all and end-all, but it's a very good tool."
Part of the simplicity is because these new VPNs don't do as much as IPSec VPNs. In particular, they don't support legacy client-server applications. But even stripped down as they are, they handle most of the traffic VPNs typically support.
The SSL model works for the majority of end users, according to Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with The Yankee Group.`For the 80% of users that need access to only 20% of corporate information, it is very useful."
How these vendors do what they do varies. But they rely on SSL, the security protocol that is already on most corporate PCs outfitted with Web browsers and used for Internet monetary transactions. These remote machines require no additional software installation or maintenance. SSL provides 168-bit encryption, the same strength as Triple-DES encryption used with IPSec.
These vendors also rely on servers that sit...