SSL VPNs on the rise, says new study

A study by market research firm Infonetics Research has looked at VPN hardware and software usage. ‘User Plans for VPN Products and Services, North American Vertical Markets 2006’, is based on interviews with network managers at 250 small, medium, and large organizations from five vertical markets: education, federal government, finance, healthcare, and retail.

"SSL allows companies to limit user access to a few specific applications or data sources, and does so at the application layer, which is an improvement in security over IPSec," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for VPNs and security at Infonetics Research. "SSL also decreases network downtime, because it can be set up quickly and easily as a disaster recovery solution when other forms of access fail. SSL products that can act as a full replacement for IPSec remote access are available now, and mainstream IT departments now realize they can use SSL for any scenario that currently uses IPSec."

Study highlights include:

* Security is still the top concern when implementing VPNs, rated as a barrier by 92 percent of respondents.

* SSL use is projected to make strong headway among respondents, going from an average of 21 percent of users currently to over a third by March 2008.

* VoIP support is moving up the list of important features for VPN products as more and more organizations roll out VoIP and discover compatibility problems with VPNs; for anyone who has already deployed VoIP, or is planning to, this is a critical feature.

* VPN/firewall appliances are the most popular devices for deploying VPNs across all size groups and verticals interviewed, followed by router-based products.

•Date: 9th May 2006 • Region: N.America • Type: Article •Topic: IT continuity
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