* Integrated SafeNet, SSH products should result in cheaper IPSec VPN gear
There is another sign that IPSec VPNs may be taking a further step toward commoditization with the announcement of an alliance between SafeNet and SSH.
SafeNet, among other things, makes a chip called SafeXcel that is designed to accelerate encryption in security appliances. SSH, also among other things, makes a developers’ tool kit called SSH QuickSec Toolkit for Access Networks, which makers of security gear use to embed IPSec capabilities in their VPN products.
This alliance is good for both of the companies. By teaming up each gets the benefit of additional numbers of salespeople beating the bushes for customers without having to actually hire them.
While it’s not an earth-shattering announcement, the alliance to integrate their products will make it simpler for designers of IPSec VPN gear to pull together their hardware/software products. This off-the-shelf approach will likely result in pretty good products at pretty good prices sometime down the road. And that is a pretty good description of what a commodity product is.
This is all part of this product group maturing, just as all widely accepted technologies mature over time. As a consultant was reminiscing the other day, he used to meet with enterprise executives to brief them on how to evaluate and buy Layer 2 workgroup switches. Now, of course, he says, nobody thinks about it much at all. “They buy them over the Internet,” he says.
We’re not there yet, but that day is approaching for IPSec VPNs.
