* Will VoIP work with SSL VPNs and IPSec VPNs
Businesses are becoming more concerned that their SSL VPN be compatible with VoIP, according to a survey by Infonetics Research.
Potential VPN users say that as they roll out VoIP in their networks, they discover compatibility problems with their SSL VPNs and this creates a serious problem, the study says.
Separate testing has shown that VoIP interoperability with SSL VPNs is widely achievable. It has also shown that VoIP performance over SSL VPNs can be better than unencrypted calls.
Regardless, respondents show more concern about VoIP compatibility with SSL VPNs, perhaps because they are deploying VoIP after the VPNs are in place and have yet to figure out how to tweak the two to make them work. The survey, entitled “User Plans for VPN Products and Services, North American Vertical Markets 2006,” consisted of interviews with network managers at 250 small, midsize and large organizations in either education, federal government, finance, healthcare or retail organizations.
SSL VPNs are a popular choice for businesses planning for disasters that require employees to access networks remotely, according to Jeff Wilson, the author of the study. He says the popularity of SSL VPNs is increasing in part because users now believe they can replace IPSec VPNs.
The popularity of SSL VPNs is expected to grow as a percentage of total VPN use as well. Today 21% of respondents use SSL VPNs but that will grow to about a third by 2008, according to the study.
SSL VPNs are considered more secure than IPSec VPNs by 80% of the respondents. Wilson says this is because SSL VPNs’ ability to cordon off access at the application layer is more restrictive than allowing network-layer access as IPSec VPNs do.
Even so, concerns about security of the VPN itself represent a barrier by 92% of the respondents.
