NetWorld+Interop - Remote access redux

Unable to rely upon VPNs to protect remote access to internal data, customers are zeroing in on simplified products to augment existing security infrastructure.

Last week at the NetWorld+Interop conference in Las Vegas, vendors such as Rainbow Technologies Inc., Neoteris Inc., InfoExpress Inc., and SonicWall Inc. unveiled new options to solve pesky access snafus including multiple user passwords and policy enforcement.

Operating three datacenters and more than 20 offices globally, Ron Sha, CIO of Borland Software Corp., said the burden of implementing client-side software downloads on every laptop or wireless device to afford remote network Web-based access posed a serious dilemma.

Neoteris, which introduced a new version of its IVE (instant virtual extranet) software platform at N+I, provided Sha with a remedy last month.

"In the past you had various applications and logins for employee access," said Sha of the Scotts Valley, Calif.-based software developer. "Now we can consolidate our entry point into applications and I don't have to install VPN router and VPN infrastructure out there."

Neoteris' new IVE product features RSA SecurID authentication support, LDAP enhancements, and supports multiple authentication servers on a per-group basis for automated subgroup access, said Jason Matlof, director of marketing for Mountain View, Calif.-based Neoteris.

Secure Web-based access through the maze of passwords being set in motion is also a thorny proposition, said Eric Hemmindinger, an analyst at Boston-based Aberdeen Group Inc.

"There's a segment of the population that finds passwords to be problematic because of support issues," Hemmindinger said.

Rainbow, he notes, is vying to fill that gap through its NetSwift iGate appliance launch at N+I. Designed to be dropped in front of any Web application and due in June, iGate features an iKey token to be plugged into a USB port when an online access prompt occurs, said David Lynch, vice president of marketing at Irvine, Calif.-based Rainbow.

If an iKey is removed, the online session automatically collapses. All transported messages are encrypted and iGate can handle 10,000 concurrent sessions, he added.

Not to be lost in the shuffle at N+I, SonicWall unveiled Tele3 TZ (trusted zone), its integrated VPN/firewall appliance that isolates telecommuters' access from a home network through separate ports, said SonicWall officials.

Also, InfoExpress introduced iCyberGateKeeper, a vendor agnostic plug-in appliance that enforces security policies for remote desktops accessing a corporate network. The product consists of a server appliance installed at the corporate site, an agent running on remote systems, and a policy manager to specify rule sets of enforcement, according to InfoExpress officials.

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More about Aberdeen GroupBorland SoftwareInfoExpressInteropNeoterisSonicWall

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