Ensure Information Security with SSL VPNs

For any enterprise, information security is of paramount importance. And in today’s business scenario, where technological advancements have increased BYOD prevalence, ensuring information security becomes very important to protect information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, perusal, inspection, recording or destruction. Hence, in the remote access scene, Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Networks (SSL VPNs) is gaining great popularity as it ensures secure, controlled and remote access to any application, from any device and from any location. An SSL VPN is a kind of VPN that allows remote users and mobile workforce to access Web applications, client/server applications and internal network connections easily and securely. SSL VPN refers to “a new and fast-growing product category comprised of a variety of technologies, based on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol.”

Before SSL VPNs entered the scene, the most widely used VPN was IPSec VPN. It required the installation of a client on the end user device to transport private data across the public internet. However, it was time consuming and made trouble shooting very difficult. With the emergence of SSL VPNs, the remote access scene has become less complicated and simple. It allows restricted network resources to be accessed remotely by means of a secure and authenticated pathway by encrypting all network traffic. Here is a look at some of the advantages of SSL VPNs.

• As SSL VPN requires no client software accessing Web-enabled applications, the deployment, management and administration of SSL VPN is easy and effective.
• SSL VPN provides secure, scalable, easy to use and browser based access to resources and applications
• SSL VPN being clientless makes the provisioning of new users simple and easy
• As SSL VPNs are easy to deploy and use, it leads to reduced support requirements
• AS it provides secure remote access, it ensures business continuity in the event of a disaster, pandemic or business interruption
• SSL VPNs provide encrypted authentication, browser cache cleansing, strong data encryption, endpoint inspection and forced remediation thereby ensuring utmost information security

Thus, SSL VPNs allow employees, partners, customers, contractors and guests to quickly and securely access the resources and applications for which they are authorized through a common Web browser. However, to ensure secure remote access ,users need to deploy best of the breed SSL VPN solutions. The following are some of the benefits offered by a best of the breed SSL VPN solution.

• Up to 3.2 Gbps throughput, 128,000 concurrent users and 500,000 users on a single access gateway appliance for maintaining security and driving productivity at scale
• 256 virtual SSL VPN portals on a single appliance, customizable to the security and usability preferences of multiple tenants and communities of interest
• Range of access methods including Web, Layer-3 and client-server connectivity
• High-performance 1024, 2048 and 4096-bit SSL encrypted communications
• No pre-installed clients; eliminates firewall and network traversal issues common to traditional VPNs
• Supports a range of AAA and dual-factor authentication schemes

With SSL VPNs facilitating anytime, anywhere secure remote access to business applications, it ensures increased productivity, while at the same time maintaining security and compliance.

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Application Delivery Networking

Increase Productivity and Ensure Security with SSL VPNs

In today’s business environment, where consumerization of IT has resulted in the popularity of the concept of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), employees, partners, customers, contractors and guests want remote access to business applications anywhere at any time. Though ensuring remote access helps enterprises to increase productivity, it is highly necessary that enterprises make sure that security and compliance are equally maintained. With security breaches being a serious issue, enterprises must ensure secure remote access so that authorized personnel can quickly access the resources and applications without compromising on security. That is where Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) come useful.

 

A VPN is defined as “a network that uses a public telecommunication infrastructure, such as the Internet, to provide remote offices or individual users with secure access to their organization's network.” Simply put, VPNs allow organizations to send and receive data across shared or public networks by creating a private or secure network over the public network. That means with VPN, public networks get all the functionalities, security and management policies of the private network but at a much lower cost.

 

Traditional VPNs rely on IPSec (Internet Protocol Security) to establish a secure tunnel between the two endpoints. However, today mostly SSL VPNs (Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Networks) are used. This is because apart from offering versatility and ease of use, SSL VPN does not require the installation of specialized client software on the end user's computer. The versatility and granular control for a range of users from any Bring Your Own Device - BYOD and any location is what SSL VPN offers the clientele.

 

Here is a look at some of the benefits of using a best of breed SSL VPN solution.

• Anytime, anywhere browser-based secure remote desktop access, enables increased productivity for employees, partners, tenants, customers, contractors and guests

• Up to 3.2 Gbps throughput, 128,000 concurrent users and 500,000 users on a single access gateway appliance for maintaining security and driving productivity at scale

• 256 virtual SSL VPN portals on a single appliance, customizable to the security and usability preferences of multiple tenants and communities of interest

• Per-user policy engine for identity-based access to URLs, files, networks and applications

• Controlled access from managed and un-managed devices including desktops, laptops, tablets and smart phones

• Cross-platform support for a range of operating systems and browsers

• Range of access methods including Web, Layer-3 and client-server connectivity

• High-performance 1024, 2048 and 4096-bit SSL encrypted communications

• Endpoint security including host-checking, cache cleaning and adaptive policies

• Supports a range of AAA and dual-factor authentication schemes

• No pre-installed clients; eliminates firewall and network traversal issues common to traditional VPNs

• Familiar CLI and WebUI for ease of configuration and management 

Thus, SSL VPN offers greater levels of security, a greater range of access methods, a broader range of device support and the ability to provide differentiated, identity-based access tailored to the needs of multiple communities of interest.

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Secure Remote Access

Understanding the Benefits of Load Balancers

Being able to balance workload evenly all through various servers is crucial for resolving time-sensitive scanning issues and challenges. With a gateway HTTP scanning solution, all the internal endpoints that request for external Web content are more probable to have a positive experience in case both their request and the final content are allowed to transparently pass through the network’s web scanning or caching infrastructure.

 

Importance of Load Balancing in Web Security

Load balancing can be defined as the practice of evenly disseminating work across various computers. The method offers numerous benefits, such as:

* It brings down the load on individual system and reduces the response time

* It maximizes the network utilization and increased throughput

* It enhances reliability

* It facilitates scaling

* It enhances user satisfaction

 

Load balancing or load balancers pertaining to web security products and solution is the discipline of intelligently routing the incoming and outgoing HTTP traffic to any one of the various servers that are accountable for controlling the access to websites. It is also responsible for scanning the traffic for spyware, malware, Phishing attacks and other unwarranted and harmful content.

 

Advanced Load Balancers and Their Benefits

Setting up an efficient HTTP scanning environment is a complicated task. There are enterprises that consider an efficient HTTP access essential to business productivity. Furthermore, keeping in mind the industry vertical they might also attach greater importance to it than email. However, contrary to email scanning HTTP scanning has better visible metrics and is considered to be “real time”. Keeping all these aspects in mind solution providers of RDP Remote Desktop Protocol Access has introduced advanced load balancers with a multi-unit clustering for 99.999% application uptime and data center scalability. 

 Other unique features and benefits include the following:

* Offers innovative application-fluent traffic management for optimized delivery of business critical applications and IP services

* Enables offloading of Web and application servers for maximized efficiency, capacity and return on investment

* A well incorporated TCP connection multiplexing, high-speed HTTP processing, compression and caching for enhanced application performance

* There is SSL acceleration for safeguarding data in transit, offloading compute-intensive processes from servers and enhancing application performance

* There are application-specific certifications and configuration guides for quick implementation of optimized configurations

* Offers VMware integration for intelligent command and controlling virtualized application architecture comprising dynamic resource allocation and deallocation

Load balancer service providers with their fault-tolerant solutions offer consistent performance and is time-saving. The applications are up and operating safely with lesser downtime issues.

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BYOD

DesktopDirect Mobilize Your Business

Array Networks is a global provider of networking solutions that improve application performance, availability and security. Our solutions connect users and applications – providing access for any user, anywhere, on any device to applications, desktops and services in the data center or the cloud.

Mobile devices and mobile working are driving major changes in the enterprise. More users must be able to work from anywhere and more users want to use tablets and smart phones as business productivity tools. The challenge for businesses lies in finding an approach that provides full application availability from remote devices, tablets and smart phones, while making sure that sensitive data never leaves the corporate network.

Desktop Direct addresses challenges faced by enterprise organizations in the areas of tablet access, remote access, productivity and business continuity. Desktop Direct is an on-premises remote desktop solution, capable of extending physical and virtual office desktops to any user on any device anywhere. Moreover, Desktop Direct is fully secure and delivers unmatched ROI as compared to alternative remote and mobile access solutions.

Tablet Access & Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
• Zero data leakage because “data never leaves the network”
• Access to physical and virtual office desktops from iPhone, iPad and Android devices for full application availability
• Enable BYOD that provides freedom of choice in a secure manner while minimizing the cost of mobile device management (MDM)

 Reduce the Cost, Complexity & Risk of VPNs
• The expense of VPN hardware and licenses, laptops, security software, bandwidth and training does not scale cost-effectively
• Every laptop with sensitive data is a security risk and every VPN connection creates an attack vector to the corporate network
• DesktopDirect is not a VPN; it is a fully secure and cost-effective remote desktop solution that is a better choice for many users 

 Increase Worker Productivity Enterprise-Wide
• Securely and cost effectively enable the majority of office workers to be productive before and after work and on weekends
• Guard against productivity and revenue losses caused by unanticipated occurrences such as a sick child, deliveries, repairs and car trouble
• Address the need for next-gen remote and mobile access from a common platform 

 Mitigate the Impact of Business Disruptions
• Scales to support thousands of concurrent users on a single system with zero IT intervention
• Ensures compliance is maintained during business continuity events and provides a seamless experience for first-time business continuity users
• Contingency license certificates cost-effectively address burst business continuity usage 

 Conclusion
Array’s DesktopDirect™ remote desktop solutions are transforming the way businesses think about remote and mobile access by rapidly and cost-effectively enabling full application availability to any device anywhere without the risk of data leakage. 

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Load Balancers

Ensure Complete Secure Remote Access with SSL VPN Solutions

Quickly gaining popularity as serious contenders in the remote-access marketplace Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Virtual Private Networks are driving corporate success and increasing employee productivity and remote connectivity. As a remote access tool, it provides remote workers with a secure access to enterprise resources via the Internet by encrypting all communications between company networks and remote user machines. As VPN is the easiest place malicious attackers to get into a network, it is therefore important to have an effective VPN security policy to protect your company's critical technology assets.

Prior SSL VPN, remote desktop access needed administrators to install, configures, and maintains special software on the users’ computers. With VPNs being expensive and complicated to operate, remote access was only offered to a few corporate employees earlier. With SSL VPN all the limitations and concerns of remote access were done away. Offering security and control with unmatched safeguards for taking care of business-critical information, SSL VPN allows any computer with a Web browser to be used for remote access, with the SSL VPN technology

How it works

The next generation of VPN service, SSL VPN (Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Network) is available primarily for system administrators. SSL VPN functions to a great extent like traditional VPN, but adds additional connectivity and compatibility, utilizing the same encryption technology used by web sites to protect sensitive information. SSL VPN transmits data through an encrypted tunnel to a VPN concentrator, giving the appearance that the user is on the local network, regardless of the user's actual location. With integrated compression, connection pooling and hardware-accelerated encryption, there is fast performance for each user, even under the heaviest load.

Secure Remote Access

A secure RDP remote access VPN extends the perimeter of your network to the remote endpoints. An SSL VPN has been an entry point for security threats to enter the network. The ubiquity, versatility, and clientless nature of the SSL VPN provide significant business benefits and cost savings. With VPN or virtual private networking, there is a safe way for mobile workers to connect to the company's local area network to access their essential resources.

SSL VPN provides secure, protected access to resources, and ensures that the only traffic that goes through the encrypted tunnel is traffic that is approved by system administrators. The SSL VPN technology facilitates easy migration and makes it easier to deploy remote access solution than IPSec. Its balance of flexibility and function makes it exceedingly competitive.

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Tablet Access 

Business continuity through remote desktop access solutions

Our modern day business world is evolving and is becoming much more advanced and globalized, with multiple teams working across various time zones. As a result of which, the traditional 9am to 5pm job set up is becoming or rather has become obsolete. That is not all. The customary meeting taking place in boardrooms or conference room too are being replaced by online collaborations and conversations that today is an easy task with the help of remote access solutions and SSL VPN tools. Remote access through VPN solutions helps business persons to manage their business anytime from anywhere.

Business continuity is an essential element of every corporate set up. As business continuity planning today is a crucial aspect of every business, it is imperative that companies invest in enterprise class remote desktop solutions that assist in leveraging technologies that are secure and scalable. Compliance too is an important factor as to why government agencies mandate sensible BCP Government mandates. Also the regulatory compliance needs several organizations to have auditable, secure admission to critical data even when there are unforeseen events taking place.

Unplanned PTO is one of the many kinds of business hindrances. There are a few employees who opt in for PTO when there is no other choice to be away from the office and yet continue their work. The other reason that can be listed that, employees are required to handle some household issues as well. Hence, an employer might as well consider that opting in for a PTO day is the best possible solution to keep the work on. On the other hand, unplanned PTO might also impact on a company’s bottom line.

Therefore, when employees take an unplanned PTO it practically might not be possible to cover up an entire day’s work responsibilities. The outcome could be in the form of accumulated tasks that are neglected for an entire day and might also delay in critical business processes. Planned PTO is accountable for the budget, whereas unplanned PTO impacts the company revenues. It is estimated based on the yearly productivity, total employee count and the average count of the PTO’s taken by each employee per year.

Today leading solution providers have come up with business continuity through remote desktop access solutions. Regardless of the type of solution that you might choose, you need to ensure that it results in increasing the overall productivity and helps in file access. Advanced remote desktop solutions help to resolve business bottlenecks and helps in business continuity planning with its secure remote access to office desktops and computing devices. It provides a secure and simple access to the desktop platform and has a simple-to-use architecture. The solution is perfect for workers who need to attend their personal and professional tasks without neglecting either of them.

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Remote Desktop for the Globally Bound Organization

Technological innovations that led to telecommunication devices, networking infrastructure and related software applications have today enabled organization to remain connected worldwide.  Understanding the value of quick decision making for a profit oriented business environment has paved way for the furthering of innovations. This has given birth to a concept of networked corporate environment with remote accessibility. 

Deploying the remote desktop access technology makes it feasible for the remotely located workforce to access their files and folders or any other critical information from their desktops and corporate database. This facilitates the management with quicker decision making capabilities. Further as organizations move to become global entities, the number of mobile workforce and remotely located teams only increases making remote access an indispensable part of the corporate operational strategy.

However, for the organizations to maximize the benefits of remote desktop appliances it becomes necessary to understand the scope of the Internet and the ability to access the desktop. The desktop sharing applications help professionals access and share their workstation from any location and any device.  Today's advance BYOD technology helps the workforce to share and access desktops from any hand held device such as smart-phones, iPads, notebooks or laptops.  The program that allows to bring your own device and connect to a distantly located computer is dependent upon Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) besides others.

The ability to access and control the workstations remotely is advantageous for the business houses and corporate sectors. The remote desktop access appliances facilitates IT industry to  streamline operations and costs and provide their clientele with a much needed good backup support. In an era when teleconferencing, online business meetings and virtual offices make up the business scenario, remote desktop protocol enhances corporate communication, boosts productivity and mitigates the effect business disruptions. 

The widely networked environment challenges organizations with cyber attacks from unknown and forbidden entities forcibly making their way through the networks. Such attacks on sensitive data bring in the requirement of implementing SSL VPN solutions that will provide safety and security of the critical data. Being a web browser-based network, this technology makes it possible to access the corporate data from any computer system. However, this requires encryption of all communications between the corporate network and the remote desktop so as to provide the remote workers with a secure access to the corporate resources.

The development of  mobile devices with cutting edge technology and the appliance based remote desktop access solutions by the leading service providers has facilitated the global organizations to extend the virtual and physical offices beyond boundaries. This has also led to an energy efficient and secure data access with unmatched returns on investment for the organization.

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Business Continuity Planning

SSL-VPNs - Striking the Right balance for a Networked Environment

In an age of globalization,  technological evolution has enabled the corporate houses with multinational offices and workforce to stay connected. The success of  global corporate is dependent on high productivity levels of its  multinational workforce and is driven by the remote connectivity factor. However, with remote connectivity comes in  crucial factors such as a widely networked environment and secure access to all the vital business information.

In order to drive in corporate success through increased employee productivity, the organizations needed to provide their widely distributed teams remote desktop accessibility. However, remote accessibility also provides ways and means for a forced entry into the network  for forbidden and unknown entities to pursue malicious attacks on sensitive data. This brings in the requirement of implementing safe SSL VPN solutions that will provide authorized users secure access to the critical data.

Initially with remote access across networks  being expensive and complicated to use, access was given to only a few corporate employees. However, with the development of SSL VPN technology, a web browser-based network access was possible from any computer system. The remote workers were provided a secure access to the corporate resources through the Internet by encrypting all communications between the corporate network and the remote desktop.

As SSL VPN technology gained popularity to provide remote access to the remote and mobile workforce, through any cloud based device, it blends in flexibility and function making organizations extremely competitive. Further, system administrators also made use of Load balancers in an attempt to maximize the available resources and enhance the performance of the applications across the network.  the server load balancer provides  99.99% application uptime,  data center scalability, and  increases the efficiency  of the network by offloading the web and application servers besides providing  uninterrupted delivery of critical business applications.

Today’s growing SSL VPN market offers organizations a wide range products to choose from. A number of factors that needs to be considered before buying the SSL VPN device include security, user experience and cost. However, with setup and management of these devices being easy, authentication certificates is not  essential for this technology products.

The increasingly mobile workforce of the present day organizations demands for an enterprise-class SSL VPN remote access solution that would enable anytime, anywhere secure remote desktop access to business applications and resources even through BYOD options. Organizations thus look out for SSL VPNs that does not require pre-installed clients, provide  encrypted connectivity, scalability and price performance while striking the right balance between productivity, security and compliance.

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Advantages of Remote Access Desktop Solutions

The current generation is entirely dependent on the mobile technology. They rely on their mobile devices such as iPads, tablets, iphones, Androids etc to accomplish their objectives. Due to time constraints and hectic schedules very less time can be spared for shopping and entertainment.

The current generation is entirely dependent on the mobile technology. They rely on their mobile devices such as iPads, tablets, iphones, Androids etc to accomplish their objectives. Due to time constraints and hectic schedules very less time can be spared for shopping and entertainment. Now it has become easy to do shopping or indulge in entertainment with the help of advanced remote access technologies and appliances. Some are apprehensive of missing out on prospective opportunities while they are on the move. Hence they need their mobile devices to carry on their normal routine without any disruptions. The remote access appliances promptly provide applications and the desktop environment to you anytime, anywhere without any restrictions.

This is an era of BYOD mechanics where you experience uninterrupted and secure connectivity and can carry on your business operations through your remote device without being dependent on any external source or without the fear of losing revenues due to unexpected absence of your employees. Natural calamities and unscheduled employee leaves are no more a concern as your employees can access the desktop environment easily from any remote location on any mobile device. Even if you are struck by some unfortunate incident suddenly there is no need to panic because the RDP technology helps in restoring your normal operations as quick as possible without any major detrimental damages.

The RDP architecture is extremely reliable, flexible and scalable and can accommodate any web, layer-3, client-server and thin-client access methods. Only authorized users are provided secure remote access to critical business applications and high-end security controls are enforced and maintained to ensure that there are no data leakages. The server load balancers and multi-unit clusters help in optimizing the applications and enhance the security, performance and availability capabilities. The web and application servers are efficiently offloaded which increases efficiency, capacity and return on investment.

The Android remote desktop solution is equipped with high integration capabilities and they deploy healthy and energy-efficient practices, thus reducing the cost of energy. The costs are reduced as the processes are simple and easy to deploy and manage, and all complexities are eliminated thus providing you with a rich user experience. End number of users can access the remote desktops at the same time without any adverse effects on the performance of the applications. You can also add any number of users without any additional costs for new hardware, software or extra licenses.

The RDP solution is the best and safest method to ensure business continuity. It helps in leveraging efficiencies and reduces costs effectively.

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