Aventail this week is announcing a collaboration appliance that works in conjunction with its SSL VPN gear to create secure IP conferencing that includes voice, video and instant messaging.

It enables the creation of IP links among authorized users who are connected to the Internet by any device - desktop, laptop, PDA or phone.

Called Secure Collaboration, the new appliance being announced at Interop New York supports conferencing, collaboration and help desk applications that are secured through VPN tunnels.

The device can be placed between an SSL VPN gateway and the corporate network so remote users trying to set up conferences over the Internet first have to authenticate to the VPN gateway. This ensures that the person trying to set up a collaborative session is authorized to do so and creates SSL links to protect from prying eyes the information that is sent.

Whatever traffic is sent over the conference can be archived, making it possible to play back what happened during a conference. These records can also be used as proof that sensitive data was handled in accordance with government and industry regulations that protect privacy.

Using the conferencing appliance eliminates the need for conferencing services, so savings from that can pay for the devices over time.

To set up a conference, users log into the Secure Collaboration portal and select those users to invite to the conference via e-mail. Each user logs in at the appointed time to join. The firs time they log in to a conference, the appliance downloads client software to their remote machine to support the conference. The conferencing agent is then cached on the remote machine for future conferences or collaboration.

In a helpdesk application, the user needing help logs in to the portal and clicks on a link for the helpdesk. If all helpdesk technicians are busy, the device can be configured to wait for the next available one.

Aventail is licensing the technology from another company that it would not name.

Pricing for Aventail Secure Collaboration starts at $5,000 for 10 concurrent users and ranges up to $67,500 for 500.

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