Novell To Offer Public Beta of Improved BorderManager

Novell will release in July the public beta of Novell® BorderManager® 3.8, which provides remote access and Internet access control capabilities within Novell Nsure™ secure identity management solutions. Among a host of enhancements, this latest version of the widely deployed Novell BorderManager includes a completely standards-based virtual private network (VPN), easier installation and management, and support for more than 50 advanced authentication methods - all designed to help customers securely deliver the right resources to the right people.

"Novell BorderManager plays an integral role in Alegent Health's secure identity management solution, working in concert with Novell iChain® and Novell DirXML® to protect sensitive medical data and provide appropriate access to it," said MaryLu Steube, operations director for Data Communications at Alegent Health, one of the top ten integrated healthcare systems in the United States. "With Novell BorderManager we can monitor and set rules for Internet access and protect business resources from external threats - helping Alegent to safeguard critical applications and private data while managing the opportunities and risks associated with the Internet."

With the addition of a standards-based VPN, Novell BorderManager 3.8 allows customers to get more from existing investments by interoperating with any IPsec-certified products, including VPN equipment from Cisco, CheckPoint, Nokia and dozens of others. In similar fashion, support for the LDAP standard enables Novell BorderManager to authenticate users against any LDAP-compliant directory service, such as Microsoft Active Directory*. Now customers can deploy the remote access solution that makes the most sense for their environment, without ripping and replacing, and establish VPN connections with business partners without fear of compatibility issues.

"The improvements in Novell BorderManager 3.8 give customers a more flexible product that's easier to integrate and manage within a mixed-vendor security infrastructure," said Dave Lawrence, vice president of Novell Nsure solutions. "Those enhancements also give the product a stronger position in some growing markets, such as the firewall/VPN software market, which analyst firm IDC expects to reach $1.3 billion by 2007."

In addition, this latest version of Novell BorderManager gives the product an increasingly valuable role in broader secure identity management solutions, tackling two key requirements. First, identity-based secure remote access allows customers to grant mobile users with secure, role-based access to non-Web applications from any location - helping employees be productive whether at the office, at home or on the road. And with support for more than 50 advanced authentication methods - from biometrics to smart cards - that remote access and the data it makes available will be secure.

Second, the Internet access control capabilities in Novell BorderManager can restrict users' Internet activity to prevent the introduction of potentially dangerous or undesirable content onto the private network. This includes support for Internet content filtering solutions from partners such as SurfControl, N2H2 and Connectotel. For many customers, these capabilities work in concert with other Nsure services, such as provisioning, Web access management and single sign-on, to create a complete secure identity management solution.

The public beta of Novell BorderManager 3.8 will be available mid-July by going to http://beta.novell.com/public.jsp. For more information about Novell Nsure secure identity management solutions, go to http://www.novell.com/nsure.