With its SSL site-to-site VPN gear, Array Networks is making it possible to rachet down controls on network access between business partners and to simplify the infrastructure of corporate VPNs.

Array's new Site2Site software for its existing SSL appliances will support SSL VPN connections over the Internet between LANs in separate buildings. To date, SSL VPNs have been restricted to remote-access connections between single computers and VPN gateways.

Gateway-to-gateway VPN links were the sole province of IPSec VPNs, and customers could use either IPSec or SSL VPNs for remote access.

Insurance broker Hub International in New York City chose IPSec for site-to-site access and SSL for remote access because SSL has certain advantages over IPSec, says Tarron Weir, vice president and CSO for the firm.

SSL requires only a Web browser on remote machines to make a VPN connection to Web applications. With SSL, client software or a software agent can be downloaded on the fly to give remote machines full network-layer access equal to that of IPSec. IPSec remote access, on the other hand, involves installing client software and setting up tunnels ahead of time.

Hub uses Cisco IPSec gear as a backup to its frame relay network; if the frame network goes down, the IPSec equipment connects company offices to headquarters over the Internet, Weir says.