Nokia Takes Wraps Off SSL VPN Device

The Nokia Secure Access System provides workers and business partners with secure remote access to Web-enabled and client/server applications such as Microsoft Outlook from any standard Internet browser, Nokia executives said.

"People have become very interested in leveraging the ubiquity of SSL to increase the number of users that have remote access and reduce the cost and support burden of rolling out IPSec VPNs," said Dan MacDonald, vice president of product management and marketing at Nokia Internet Communications.

SSL VPNs are a fast-growing security segment. Infonetics Research predicts annual revenue for the market will top $900 million in 2006.

Nokia's Secure Access System leverages its proven IP security platform and offers client integrity scanning, MacDonald said. While the vendor's other security appliances run third-party software, this device uses proprietary Nokia software.

Gary Fish, president and CEO of FishNet Security, Kansas City, Mo., said his company has had tremendous success with other SSL VPN products and looks forward to Nokia's. Businesses go through a lot of pain deploying and supporting client-side VPN software, which SSL VPNs don't require. "This is just a fabulous way to deploy client VPNs," he said.

Fish lauded Nokia's channel support and said the vendor has done a great job putting together a set of solutions for its partners to sell.

Secure Access System is slated to ship by the end of July. Pricing ranges from $220 per connection for 50 connections to $110 per connection for 500 connections, including hardware, software and first-year software subscription.