Product Watch: Start-Up Offers Plug-in Remote Access

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The Instant Virtual Extranet (IVE) appliances, the flagship product line from start-up Neoteris, Inc., are plug-in devices for network administrators that enable secure remote access to corporate network resources for employees or business partners.

The appliances themselves are installed onsite, on the organization’s LAN, and serve as somewhat of an access proxy; enabling remote users to access corporate servers and applications using only their Web browser as an interface. The remote users connect to the devices using their public Internet connection and existing Web browsers (no additional client software is required); and the device then communicates with the host servers or applications via its built-in support for multiple communication protocols.

The devices themselves feature a hardened Web server for communicating with external users (both standard HTTP and secure communications utilizing HTTPS/SSL are supported) and support for multiple common protocols for communicating with existing servers and applications, including those required for E-Mail (IMAP, POP, SMTP), file access (Windows NT, NFS/UNIX), and user authentication (LDAP, RADIUS, Windows NT Domain, Active Directory, and NIS).

Additional compatibility planned for availability in the first half of 2002 include Telnet, Java/JavaScript, and MAPI.

Behind the scenes, core technologies within the devices provide the content analysis and transformation capabilities required to publish the information to the user via the Web server.

Initially, two devices will be made available from Neoteris: PartnerAccess and EmployeeAccess. The EmployeeAccess device provides access to the network especially for remote employees; authenticating the user based on their name/password combination as stored in either a local user file or authentication server.

PartnerAccess expands the access and security features of the device to include support for both group and specific user access controls for individual applications; support for digital certificate authentications; and application and user monitoring and reporting tools. An additional feature of both devices, load balancing, is planned to be available in 2002.

The IVE appliances are expected to be generally available on Nov. 19. Pricing begins at $14,995 (EmployeeAccess/100 users) and $29,995 (PartnerAccess/250 users). Contact Neoteris for more information.

This article was first published on InternetProductWatch, an internet.com site.