Nokia has bolstered its mobile enterprise strategy with the
introduction of a family of virtual private network devices to
support mobile workers.
The company has launched four VPN gateway appliances to cater for
SMEs as well as large businesses, and an IP VPN client for mobile
devices.
Application areas include branch and remote office connectivity via
an IP VPN.
The mobile client, designed for mobile devices running the Symbian
operating system, is supported by Nokia's Meta-Hop technology. It
is designed to help ensure seamless user connectivity from the
mobile device all the way to the application, even if a connection
is disrupted.
Unlike some products, which are licensed by the number of users,
Nokia plans to charge per gateway to offer users a way to control
licensing costs.
The Meta-Hop technology can provide mobile workers with a secure
connection to IP-based applications. Nokia devices support
self-learning and self-healing networks that track multiple
connection paths to ensure a connection is maintained, the company
said.
"With Nokia mobile VPN, users are no longer restricted to where and
how they securely connect to the important information they need,"
said Elie Habib, Nokia enterprise solutions senior vice-president,
security and mobile connectivity.
The self-learning aspect can be used by the VPN to discover when a
new subnet is installed on the network. The devices also offer IP
clustering.
Bob Brace, vice-president of mobile solutions at Nokia, said, "We
can cluster multiple devices together to deliver scalability and
reliability."
Charles Kolodgy, an analyst at IDC, said, "Remote access to
enterprise data is not limited to desktops and laptops anymore.
Nokia's product is designed to ensure secure remote access to
enterprise resources, no matter what device is being used to
connect."
The four VPN gateway products are the Nokia 100i for medium-sized
to large firms, the Nokia 50i for branch offices, and the 10i and
5i platforms for smaller operations.
Nokia is also providing VPN Manager, a graphical tool for creating
and updating configurations and policies for gateways and clients.