Rueman,
The last time I looked at what was available or going to be available in WinCE from security standpoint, it only supported PPTP which is a weak VPN protocol. Certicom's client employs IPsec which is industry standard for VPNs and more secure.
That being said, however, Microsoft has IPsec in Win2K and WinXP. This means they have the technology to put it in WinCE, they just need to do it.
There's something interesting going here with regard to CERT's role in this handheld VPN marketplace. In the current "Palm World," Certicom's ECC-based product has a SIGNIFICANT advantage over a non-ECC product because the processor speed in Palms is so pathetic (e.g. 20 Mhz). I suspect non-ECC IPsec clients are probably unbearably slow, and the stats Certicom cites on their website confirm that. If there is a need or desire for VPNs on Palms, Certicom will get that business.
But with WinCE and Pocket PCs, it's a whole new ballgame. Processor speeds in Pocket PCs are over 200 Mhz now. Non-ECC algorithms (i.e. RSA and regular Diffie-Hellman) will do much better in that environment. ECC will be faster of course, but the difference will not be nearly so drastic. In other words, ECC will not be a requirement for VPN usability in the PocketPC world (IMO). And when the next generation Palms catch up processing-wise, it won't be required there either.
Bottom line, time and technology are not on Certicom's side in the handheld world. As the processors get faster and more capable, ECC will not be required in the handheld IPsec client. And if ECC isn't required in the handheld client, then ECC-based certificates won't be required and neither will ECC in the VPN gateways. (There goes the need for MobileTrust and ECC licensing in the VPN world.)
There is good news though. As of right now, they have the only IPsec client for handhelds on the market, so they own it whether ECC is used or not. Based on PRs I've seen though, I think competition is coming. And I wouldn't be the slightest bit surprised to see it end up in the OS at some point.
In my opinion, and note I could be dead wrong, this is not a great area for them. |
