* Positive to announce reseller for its PositivePRO VPN
Service provider Positive Networks is expecting a boost to its stature later this month when a large ISP – unnamed so far – resells its service.
Positive Networks sells a service called PositivePRO VPN for $20 per user per month. With it, businesses can set up flexible remote access for their employees, clients and partners.
Using servers in Positive’s data center, remote machines can create secure connections to Web applications using just the browser on remote machines. If the machine is company-owned, the user can authorize downloading an agent that checks that it meets security policies.
If the machine flunks, Positive can update the machine so it does meet the policies. When the secure session is over, Positive reconfigures the machine to the profile it had before the session.
A third option enables remote users to take control of desktops within a business network via a remote computer. This requires installing an agent ahead of time on the target computer.
The three-and-a-half-year-old company has had some success already with its software, licensing it to Nokia last fall. Nokia was interested in the remote access technology as well as a remote-computer security feature called Secure Workspace. This feature creates a virtual desktop from which secure remote access sessions are launched and transacted, and which is then wiped out when the session ends.
Secure Workspace leaves no trace of secure sessions on remote machines, so if the computer used for a remote session is compromised, data accessed during the session cannot be found.
If the ISP turns out to be a major one, this could be a feather in Positive’s cap and put it on the list of possibilities for businesses looking to outsource Internet-based remote access. Stay tuned.
