Propalms VPN 3.4 now available!

The long waiting for Propalms VPN has come to an end now. The good old vFortress VPN technology is now available with new features matching the current secure remote access demands. The Propalms VPN is currently available as a software VPN with version no 3.4. It can be downloaded from link (http://www.propalms.com/freevpn) which is a free VPN instance upto 10 users. By end of next month, Propalms VPN will be available on proprietary hardware platforms for SMB as well as Enterprise customers. Till then you can run Propalms VPN on any x86 based hardware or virtualize it.

Just to give some background, Propalms VPN (earlier vFortress VPN) was first release in 2004. vFortress VPN was well accepted in India when it was first released and there are still more than 30 customers using the vFortress VPN even when they did not have any support for 3 years after vFortress had to close down operations in 2006. The largest installation for vFortress VPN was 30,000 concurrent users. Currently the largest installation of Propalms VPN has 4000 concurrent users.

Propalms VPN is a SSL based clientless (agent based) as well as client based VPN solution. Although all the features are generic for any type of TCP/IP application, we made sure that we make VPN integration simple for Propalms TSE customers. Propalms VPN provides SSO for Propalms TSE launchpad portal which means users need to authenticate only one time to VPN gateway. VPN then takes care of authenticating the user with Propalms TSE. This will enable customers to enable more stronger multi-factor authentication policies for Propalms TSE server and just any other application published over TSE or directly over VPN.

It should be interesting to know that Propalms VPN has a built-in client certificate based two factor authentication solution that supports automatic provisioning and revocation of digital certificates for users. Here is (http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/31124) an article from NetworkWorld that explains in detail why client certificate based two factor solution is the most secure two factor authentication solution and in fact is the only solution that can thwart MITM attacks. Propalms VPN had this feature tightly integrated in the solution since 2005. And if you go through the comments on the Network World article (http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/31124), Propalms VPN client certificate authentication has it all to make it completely secure; it does not send keys over network, generate key pair on end user machine, a lost laptop can be denied access by revoking the certificate from VPN console on a single click, built-in CA, etc, etc.. Just like client certificate based authentication, Propalms VPN has built-in biometric authentication support which will enable customers implement third factor of authentication.

Endpoint security is a core element of remote access solution and so is for Propalms VPN. We have integrated the best-in-class endpoint security features which are on par with likes of Juniper, Cisco or Aventail (now SonicWall).

The unique thing about Propalms VPN is that its a “application” access gateway rather than a “network” extension VPN. Even though there is a client involved, it does not bridge enduser network with corporate network while still supporting any type of TCP and UDP based application. There are obvious threats involved which needs more detailed explaination which will require another article. Propalms VPN delivers traffic only for a configured application from enduser machine to corporate network. That gives administrators the much needed control and visibility to make sure authorized users accesses only “authorized” applications. It might just involve a bit more of administration but it is worth taking effort publishing individual application rather than simply publishing a whole subnet or generally the whole corporate network.

There are more features like application load balancing, Active-Active high availability, fake private network IP addresses, multiple ISP failover which will interest customers of all sizes, verticles and markets.

I am sure Propalms TSE customers would be first to try Propalms VPN as they would like to get a faster and scalable SSL encryption platform compared to the Windows based DMZ SPR.

For more information go to http://www.propalms.com/products/propalms_vpn.php