IBM is putting its irons in the hot virtual private network (VPN) fire.
IBM executives at last week's Networking Systems TechnicalConference confirmed that within the next year the company willroll out eNetwork VPN, a series of products that will providestandards-based security, firewall, management and directoryservices across its server and switch families, enabling companiesto build large-scale VPNs. IBM's eNetwork packages are a familymanagement and directory services across its server and switch families, enabling companies to build large-scale VPNs. IBM's eNetwork packages are a family of communications and office software suites for its server line.
With the addition of eNetwork VPN products, IBM continues to make new forays into the TCP/IP arena - a market that just a few short years ago it seemed to be conceding to Cisco Systems, Inc. and other big IP vendors. While it still has to prove its mettle, new products such as its Integrated Switch/Router (NW, Sept. 15, page 27), a high-end switch for Internet service providers, high-performance TCP/IP software for the mainframe, and a raft of IP client software, IBM is striking out in a number of new directions.
The company also is determined not to let Cisco, Bay Networks, Inc. and others who have VPN technology dominate the market.
eNetwork VPN products will let users link branch offices or remote users with corporate resources over the Internet or an intranet. The products also will be deployed by IBM's Global Network value-added network service to provide links between business partners. A long-term goal is to target ISPs with eNetwork VPN packages, executives said.
"Our long-term goal is to provide the technology that will enable users to link VPNs across multiple ISPs, which is something that can't be done today," said Alfred Zollar, general manager of IBM's Networking Software Division. "In the near term we want to enable users to reduce their leased line and remote dial-in costs with a secure VPN.
"Eventually, you'll be able to set up and tear down VPNs as easy as you set up and tear down teleconferencing calls," Zollar said.
"What IBM is doing is creating infrastructure, putting plumbing in place," said Rick Villars, an analyst with International Data Corp., a consultancy based in Framingham, Mass. "Their focus in this is securing the connection."
What IBM is offering is security, not only over the public Internet, but within the company intranet as well, Villars said. "To be a real VPN you need to extend security all the way to the end server."
A VPN relies on transmitting encrypted data over the public 'Net from site to site - a process called tunneling. When the tunneled data reaches its destination, it is decoded and authenticated at a firewall. A key to the technology is guaranteeing security and reliability over the Internet.
That's just what IBM intends to do.
Some of the VPN products already are available in its AIX family. For example, in June IBM released the AIX Firewall 3.1. This month it will ship AIX 4.3 which supports the emerging IETF IP Security (IP Sec) key which defines a standard way of encrypting data. IBM's eNetwork Communications Suite for Windows 95 and OS/2 Warp 4 clients already supports IP Sec. So, at the end of the month users will be able to set up a VPN between an AIX server and eNetwork clients.
Over the next year, IBM will add IP Sec and firewall support to its OS/390, OS/400 and OS/2 Warp server families as well as to its 2216 switch and 2210 routers.
IBM will also implement the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP), an industry standard for accessing network directory services. Implemented across its VPN servers LDAP should enable widely scattered VPN users to easily communicate with each other and access network resources.
IBM also will add a Java-based application that can manage the IBM VPN environment.
There is no doubt that a VPN will appeal to companies unable or unwilling to invest a lot of cash in its network infrastructure. It is the wave of the future, said Glenn Botkins, intranet project manager at Galaxy Scientific Corp., in Egg Harbor Township, N.J.
The high-tech engineering company has six sites all connected via a PSINet, Inc. VPN service. "It's worked very well for us," he said. "We don't have a lot of resources."
Still, not everyone is sold on the role VPN will play in the enterprise, at least in the short term. Tom Nolle, president of CIMI Corp., a Voorhees, N.J.-based consultancy, said an entirely new IP infrastructure must be created for VPNs to work - mere tunneling isn't enough for quality of service and security guarantees.
"In the long run, VPNs are going to replace private networks by the year 2010," Nolle said. "In the short term, there are a lot of problems."
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