SSL VPN for Mobility Enablement

The boom in mobile technology with remote access of network isn’t hidden from anyone. The world is moving faster than we can imagine. From dial up Internet to broadbands, the Internet age has seen it all and leaped through all of these smoothly (with few hurdles and head first falls!)

It is this anywhere and anytime access requirement which has pushed organizations to think outside the box and take their ever expanding network requirements overly seriously. Remote access helps organizations improve customer service, power to drive productivity and add agility to the organization. Along with all the benefits come along the security issues that can virtually block, if ignored, an organization’s working process.

This is where VPN comes into play and does its job pretty well. Although most of the operating systems have pre-installed VPNs that can help you achieve your basic targets, actually you get what you pay for. These in-built protocols lack robust authentication, rely mostly on usernames and passwords, and can easily be hacked by a novice hacker.

Although there are multiple VPN protocols that are being used by different vendors, Secure Socket Layer (SSL) happens to be the most famous and pretty secure when compared to all. SSL uses same encryption as most of the e-commerce websites and different web-enabled applications thus making it quiet easy when it comes to compatibility. It is the ease of access with features like cross-compatibility and different options that make SSL a famous VPN Protocol.

SSL VPN uses same ports that are most of the times opened for firewalls in order to allow secure traffic. This means that no other extra setup is required to have SSL up and running. This reduces the weird need of installing custom software in order  use SSL which is really a handy characteristic of SSL.

SSL has an important feature using which access could be denied to a “authorized” user if that particular user has logged in from a not-so-secure network which could be a coffee shop wi-fi.

Another important feature of SSL which benefits administrators is its update feature. The settings of an SSL connection can be easily updated without the requirement of any third party software. This reduces a lot of pain and saves a lot of time. Also, SSL incorporates multiple layers of authentication and can restrict access to few applications while allow access to the rest of them.

Salman Siddiqui is an expert technology analyst and regularly blogs on his tech. blog CompuWorld. His vast experience of freelance writing is backed by his passion to swim against the tide. You can grab him on Twitter.