Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: djane who wrote (52691)	8/24/1998 10:53:00 PM
From: djane	Respond to of 61433

LANTimes article. VPNs on the verge of popularity wcmh.com./98/98aug/808bcd06b.html CHANNEL DIRECTIONS Moving from niche to necessity By Deborah Asbrand Just a year ago, hardly anyone could define a virtual private network. It had something to do with Internet communications, most knew. Cyber networking, they said. Cloaked in overly serious tones, discussion of VPNs usually had a sort of strange-but-true "X-Files" quality to them. As it turns out, the truth was out there. Organizations are clamoring for secure Internet communications, and analysts and forecasters who pronounced VPNs "The Next Big Thing" were right. VPNs are shaping up as a huge opportunity for VARs and integrators. Valued at a puny $204 million in 1997, the market for VPN products, systems integration, and network services will reach $11.9 billion three years from now, predicts Infonetics Research Inc. in San Jose. The reason for the boom is the popularity of remote access. For years, offsite connection to the corporate LAN was the province of sales reps and a few lucky telecommuters. Now customers, suppliers, and resellers are lining up for access. But before they're willing to release their data on the Internet, corporations want it protected. Encryption, once the province of defense contractors, is a staple of VPNs. For VARs and integrators, the partnership opportunities are plentiful. Nearly every player in the IT marketplace is looking to cash in on the conversion of VPNs from nouveau riche to corporate necessity. The major internetworking vendors caught on quickly and have built VPN capabilities into their WAN switches. Firewall makers have also implemented the technology. This year, the major telcos and ISPs expect to make inroads by introducing new VPN services or beefing up existing ones. Security specialists are also staking claims in the nascent market. Vendors such as Frontier Information Technologies Inc. and RedCreek Communications Inc. sell hardware and software that support VPNs. The path to profits has a few pitfalls, of course. Like any new technology, VPNs still have their share of confusion over specifications. Now there are three primary contenders: IPsec, the point-to-point tunneling protocol, and the Layer 2 tunneling protocol.