It’s secure, but is it easy?

Let’s admit, whilst IPSec VPN has traditionally been the standard for secure remote access it has never been the easiest to configure. The client software installation, pre-shared key distribution and the inevitable debugging due to the myriad of options and overly aggressive port filtering by your access provider has caused many an administrator, if not sleepless nights, then certainly a period of frustration. Whilst improving the experience of the IPSec VPN configuration, easing the client install and giving more widely useful default options certainly helps we can still find ourselves looking elsewhere for solutions. With SSL-VPNs we get a remote access solution based on standard browser encryption technology, removing the configuration headaches and making remote access as ubiquitous as the browser. At Fortinet we believed this feature was so useful to our FortiOS feature set that we added it for free.

With supporting for multiple browsers, a menu driven captive portal, and a tunnel mode with client software available across a range of operating systems, (windows family, linux, mac, iPhone) our SSL-VPN solution simplifies VPN connectivity. Of course, we also use our FortiASIC technology to drive the performance and don’t limit access by user or license key.

This is no cut-down feature set either, we provide integration with Active Directory, E-Directory, LDAP, RADIUS, TACACS+ with multiple token and certificate based two factor authentication options, with portals and access permissions controlled by user groups. There is support for posture checking, virtual desktop, cache cleaning and single sign on. We’ve also ensured that we integrate with the FortiGate WAN optimization feature to give that remote client some network performance optimization.