In a
distributed business model, branch offices and POS locations
extend a company's reach into key markets, but that
communication link must be available 24x7 and be able to support
the businesses applications. VPN solutions help companies
establish centralized control over branch offices, point-of-sale
(POS) locations, or remote kiosks providing the robust security
and performance needed for business continuance. VPN solutions
enable secure, high-speed communications between multiple
locations.
SonicWALL Internet security appliances offer the performance,
reliability, and availability that businesses need to
communicate. Traditional site-to-site connections require
companies to lease expensive, dedicated data lines that are
difficult to deploy and manage. With the advent of
affordable broadband and standards-based VPN, organizations can
deploy secure remote access via ubiquitous Internet connections.
With today's VPN technology and broadband connections, companies
of any size use the Internet to securely communicate with their
multiple locations.
Hardware vs. Software Based VPN
There are two main types of security and remote access options
available today: software and hardware. Software based
firewall/VPN gateways running a computer or server have inherent
problems.
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A
general-purpose computer is not the most reliable device for
the processing demands of security. Firewall/VPN applications
are data intensive, and placing these processing demands on a
computer or processor can slow down the network.
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A
general-purpose computer's operating system isn't designed
with bulletproof security in mind. Configuring computer-based
firewall and VPN gateways require that you harden the
operating system. This means ensuring the operating system
always has the latest security patches to fix new security
flaws.
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The
complexity of current software configurations has been
problematic, particularly ease of use and management.
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The
hardware based firewall/VPN solutions, typically embodied in
security appliances, protects the entire network and offloads
all the firewall and VPN processing from the computers.
Because security appliances protect the network at the
Internet gateway, they provide a platform for seamless local
or remote management of all security and remote access
services. A security appliance is a solid-state platform with
a powerful onboard processor to handle the demands of firewall
and VPN processing.
REMOTE ACCESS VPN
One of the fastest growing remote access
applications is telecommuting. Recent analyst studies predict a
total of 32 million Internet-connected telecommuters in the US
alone by 2004. By 2005, the worldwide telecommuting population
is expected to reach 137 million. Telecommuting is changing the
way 21st-century companies operate, bringing considerable
benefits to both employers and workers:
- Companies can expand their labor pool, to
attract the most talented employees regardless of location.
- Operations can be expanded quickly and
cost-effectively without opening additional branch offices.
- Employee productivity increases with
reduced commuting time and fewer daily interruptions.
SonicWALL's comprehensive solutions make it
easy for your organization to meet the challenges - and reap the
benefits - of telecommuting. SonicWALL's innovative technology
seamlessly extends corporate-level security and privacy all the
way out to your telecommuters, regardless of their home
networking environments. This gives you the control you need
over all remote access points, and ensures the security of your
company's network. And for the laptop mobile computing,
SonicWALL's Global VPN Client secures connections for employees
requiring secure access to business-critical network resources
from various locations. Our award-winning Global Management
System (GMS) provides control over widely distributed networks
and can scale to accommodate enterprise growth objectives while
easily managing and reporting on remote access locations.
