* SSL remote access vendors increase the capacity of their gateways
Recently, SSL remote access vendors have been increasing the capacity of their gateways to support more simultaneous users.
For instance, F5 introduced a box that supports 1,000 users at a time, and the boxes can be daisy chained to support up to 10,000. Array Networks has a new box that supports up to 2,200 users on one device. (Array, which initially made SSL equipment for service providers, actually scaled down its gear to create this device.)
The point is that there is growing demand for higher capacity devices, which means that the technology is gaining wider acceptance by businesses. Why?
The technology has been proven in companies that test drove the first set of devices and deemed them worthy of rolling out farther. So employees who had no remote access rights before now get them because it is relatively painless to extend them. Employees who had other access methods such as IPSec VPN in some cases are being rolled over to SSL because it offers the support they need without the need for distributing clients.
SSL extranets that let business partners access internal networks are also taking off. These are attractive because they eliminate the need for the IT and security staffs of the two partner companies to get together and hash out a mutually acceptable way to access each other’s network. They can do so using SSL gear without reconfiguring firewalls, without duplicating secure servers for partners to access and without granting full network access.
This flexibility means it is just a matter of time before SSL remote access overrides IPSec remote access VPNs as the preferred Internet remote access method.
