(BTW Who is Peter Strifas? <ggg>)
Novell's SecureMe
appliance designed to
safeguard e-comm,
intranet sites
By DENI CONNOR
Network World, 02/28/00
PROVO, UTAH - Novell next month will unveil an
Internet appliance designed to speed secure access to
e-commerce sites and corporate intranets.
The company is expected to demonstrate this security
appliance, code-named SecureMe, at its BrainShare
customer conference in Salt Lake City from March 26
to March 31. SecureMe provides access,
authentication and secure communications over the
Internet, while regaining the speed lost by servers in
processing secure transactions.
New service information
Also at BrainShare, Novell will release information on
an upcoming service that lets users and companies
store information on the Internet as if the data were
stored on another network drive. The company is also
expected to give more details of plans to integrate
applications with DirXML, its directory-enabled
XML technology, as well as its new Novell Directory
Services (NDS) Filtered Replication, which lets
companies take subsets of their directories and share
them with customers, partners and users.
The SecureMe appliance uses encryption-decryption
algorithms to pass secure traffic. The device decrypts
scrambled traffic on the way into the network before
passing it to a Web server, Web-caching device or
load-balancing device. By doing that, the servers don't
have to spend processing time on decryption. The box
then encrypts the traffic on the way back out to the
Internet.
The SecureMe appliance also uses public-key
infrastructure (PKI) to provide directory-enabled
public-key cryptography and digital certificates. It can
use digital certificates from third-party vendors or
those from its Certificate Server. SecureMe is also
NDS and Lightweight Directory Application
Protocol-enabled.
"SecureMe will take the burden off the Web server,"
says James Cimino, president of the consultancy
Bright Ideas in Edison, N.J. "If I don't want to add
[Secure Sockets Layer] encryption on my server, I
can just turn on the appliance. Basically, I can plop
this device in any environment and have it start issuing
certificates and decrypting secure pages."
SecureMe contains a CPU, memory and software. It
is expected to be sold through hardware vendors such
as Compaq and Dell, Novell says. Today, Novell
markets its Internet Caching System, a Web-server
caching technology, through system vendors. These
companies may combine SecureMe and Internet
Caching System into a single device that caches as
well as encrypts and decrypts secure messages, or
offer SecureMe as a stand-alone single-function
device.
"Being able to offload crypto services will greatly
enhance our ability to increase the end-user
performance of our virtual private network and
extranet," says Peter Strifas, a network specialist with
the Connectivity Group in Chicago.
The messaging software firm is developing a Web
'hub' - a digital community where partners,
developers, end users and sales personnel will log on
and access information, news and services.
"SecureMe, with its SSL encryption/decryption, PKI
and directory enablement becomes a perfect fit,"
Strifas says.
SecureMe is operating system independent and
requires no changes to the Web server or client
browser software. It turns HTTP content into Secure
HTTP content for communications over the Internet
and redirects end-user HTTP requests for secure
content to its SSL port. The device responds with a
Java applet or HTML page requesting SSL
authentication.
Novell declined to comment on SecureMe pricing.
The appliance will ship by year-end.
Separately, the "hosted file system" set for BrainShare
unveiling is a project Novell has been developing as a
result of its recent acquisitions of JustOn and PGSoft,
Novell says.
JustOn's service lets users store files on the Internet
and share them with other users. PGSoft is developing
client-side software that lets users access these files
from Microsoft's Windows Explorer or a browser. It
is part of Novell's In-the-Net Services division, which
is expected to make other hosted services
announcements at BrainShare. |
