Seeking to run at the speed of the rest of the networking industry, IBM recently made a wide ranging series of virtual private network (VPN) and related announcements.
At last week's NetWorld+Interop, for example, several IBM hardware and software units announced new remote-access options.
As reported in Network World (NW 5/4/98, Pg. 1) NHD announced it would be adding Virtual Private Network support for remote offices and mobile users by making common code changes through its router lines. Central to the move, Big Blue will be adding IPsec encryption and key management on its 2216, 2210 routers and the 2216/3746 Multiaccess Enclosure.
This also includes support for the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol across these devices, along with support for Enterprise Extender, which moves SNA failover capacity to remote sites, and Data Link Switching (DLSw), which wraps SNA data in IP packets. The enhancements will also allow the encryption of Frame Relay packets.
With Enterprise Extender and DLSw, the company can attach its SNA data priortization capability to an IP prioritization scheme that lets routers reserve bandwidth for selected data.
Meanwhile, the the Networking Software Division (NSD) will roll out more advanced firewall and other security products, based on the eNetwork Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Directory. The LDAP directory attaches to a DB2 database, and centrally stores user, security and network topology information, allowing users to avoid having to make individual database entries.
The directory runs on AIX, OS/390, and later this year will be ported to OS/400, Windows NT, and Sun's Solaris. IBM is providing the product free to its installed base. IBM also added Window NT support to its eNetwork Firewall; currently it supports AIX.
IBM also plans to offer its AntiVirus immune system software as a product sometime in the next year. The immune system detects, isolates, and finds a cure to any virus that infiltrates a network. After the cure is found, it is distributed throughout the network in case of future invasion.
The S/390 group also announced a new line of enterprise servers, Generation 5, which sports a 455MHz CPU that doubles the performance of previous models. The new chip will be tied closely to the IP stack in the OS/390, for enhanced IP performance. The G5 family will ship in volume in August.
Big Blue revealed enhancements for the OS/2 Warp Server family, including management support for Windows NT 4.0 clients, with regular network monitoring and statistics reporting capabilities. For IT staff in large networks, it added a command line interface for automating and configuring data backup, as well as the ability do backup on both tape drives and local removable drives.
IBM also announced its Business Integration with MQSeries messaging middleware. Using software connectors and adapters, it has more tightly tied together disparate applications and systems with its MQSeries Integrator. This allows IT staff to configure the software with "intelligent" messaging, and different business departments can now more freely share information. With this and the new MQSeries Workflow, the net manager can establish the conditions for automating the routing and formatting of messages and for configuring the applications to meet a business' own specific requirements.
In a joint announcement with Intel Corp., IBM announced it was bundling Intel LANDesk Management Suite for desktops with IBM's Suite for Windows NT and its Enterprise Suite for Windows NT.
RELATED LINKS
Defines L2TP and related acronyms.
Net giants enter VPN fray
Network World, 5/4/98.
IBM weaves Internet across product lines
Network World Fusion, 4/7/98.
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