Juniper on Monday extended its lineup of hardware platforms for SSL VPNs, rolling out new devices for small and midsize business and large enterprises.

The Secure Access 700, 2000, 4000 and 6000 appliances run Juniper's IVE (Instant Virtual Extranet) software, which uses SSL encryption to secure data communications on remote connections, an extranet or an intranet. SSL is available on standard Web browsers, so rather than having to install and maintain a full VPN client on each user's device, Juniper can simply use the existing browser or lightweight software, said Niv Hanigal, product manager for the Secure Access line. That software can be downloaded and updated on the fly, over the network, he said. This makes SSL VPNs a less expensive alternative to traditional IPSec VPNs, according to Hanigal.

The product line is designed for secure access to enterprise resources by employees in the main office or in remote locations, as well as by business partners that need access to certain kinds of data. It allows administrators to allow access only to certain kinds of resources based on who is using the VPN and from where, Hanigal said. For example, when using a corporate wireless LAN, an employee might have access to different kinds of information than when he or she is using the wired LAN, he said.

Juniper adds the new products to a lineup currently made up of the Secure Access 1000, 3000 and 5000 for enterprises and the Remote Access 500 for SMBs. Those platforms were introduced in 2001 by Neoteris, which was later acquired by NetScreen. NetScreen, in turn, was acquired by Juniper last year as the growing router vendor sought a security portfolio.

With the new products come big boosts in processing power, memory, network interface capacity and other capabilities, Hanigal said.

The SA 6000 is the large-enterprise workhorse of the new lineup, with an SSL acceleration chipset that can encrypt traffic using the RC4 (Rivest Cipher 4), 3DES (Data Encryption Standard) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) protocols as well as compressing it, Hanigal said. The SA 6000 also has dual redundant hot-swappable hard drives that mirror data in real time to allow for smooth recovery in case of a failure. The SA 6000 can be used by as many as 2,500 clients at the same time, and as many as eight of the devices can be clustered together to support more than 10,000 concurrent users, Hanigal said.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.