Configuring Secure Access

9. Summary and Conclusions

With the proliferation of broadband access worldwide, remote access is becoming more prevalent in increasingly mission critical applications for the competitive enterprise. Cable modems and xDSL access are making remote office/telecommuting an increasingly viable and useful scenario for individual subscribers. Similarly, the dramatic increase in the availability of public wireless LANs (802.11) is enabling mobile workers to stay connected to the enterprise network at broadband speeds. Securing these client sessions and protecting intellectual property is clearly a key enterprise requirement, and IPSec defines the architecture for this security. However, equipment costs, scaling issues, and administrative overhead have made deployment and ongoing management of remote access by the enterprise problematic. This enterprise pain point presents service providers with an opportunity — to offer a managed secure remote access service.

Service providers can now use IPSec secure remote access services as a foundation for a value-added services portfolio. Finally, these providers can now offer IPSec secure remote access to customers who desire this critical service, but do not want to provide the equipment and stafing requirements themselves.