Remote access players lock down networks

Unable to rely on VPNs (virtual private networks) to protect remote access to internal data, customers are zeroing in on simplified products to augment existing security infrastructures.

Companies including Rainbow Technologies, Neoteris, InfoExpress, and SonicWall last week unveiled at NetWorld+Interop 2002 Las Vegas new options to solve access snafus including multiple user passwords and policy enforcement.

Neoteris's new IVE (instant virtual extranet) software platform features RSA SecurID authentication support, LDAP enhancements, and it supports multiple authentication servers on a per-group basis for automated subgroup access, said Jason Matlof, the Californian company's director of marketing.

Operating three data centres and more than 20 offices globally, Neoteris customer Ron Sha, CIO of Borland Software, 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.

"In the past you had various applications and log-ins for employee access," said Sha. "Now we can consolidate our entry point into applications, and I don't have to install VPN router and VPN infrastructure out there."

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.

"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 Rainbow.

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

InfoExpress also introduced iCyberGateKeeper, a vendor-agnostic plug-in appliance that enforces security policies for remote desktops accessing a corporate network that consists of a server appliance, a remote agent, and a policy manager.

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More about Aberdeen GroupBorland AustraliaBorland SoftwareiGATEInfoExpressINSInteropNeoterisRainbow technologiesRSASonicWallSonicWall

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