In 5 Minutes or Less Video - BIG-IP APM & Citrix XenApp
Watch how F5 customers can now simply use BIG-IP Access Policy Manager or BIG-IP Edge Gateway to consolidate access control in a central location, keeping infrastructure administration concerns to a minimum. With BIG-IP solutions, customers enjoy the flexibility and scalability needed to extend Citrix applications to both local and remote users without changing local XenApp deployments or requiring STA to provide secure remote access to applications. Highlights of deploying Citrix and F5 technologies together include: Reduced Management Time and OpEx – By simplifying and centralizing local and remote access authentication, BIG-IP solutions eliminate the need for customers to add separate Citrix STA infrastructure or make changes to existing Web Interface servers, resulting in an environment that is less expensive to deploy and requires less time to manage. Simplified Configuration and Deployment – With BIG-IP solutions, administrators can support users of Citrix applications with fewer devices, configure deployments to support flexible access models, and easily scale the environment. This fully integrated functionality makes it quick and easy for customers to set up and deploy local and remote access capabilities for Citrix applications, keeping users productive. Centralized and Comprehensive Access Control – Unlike the separate Citrix products required to adequately support applications for remote users, BIG-IP solutions provide centralized application access control and use a single access policy to support all types of users securely, so IT teams can be confident that application access is aligned with the organizations’ specific business priorities and security policies. &amplt;/p&ampgt; &amplt;p&ampgt;ps&amplt;/p&ampgt; &amplt;p&ampgt;Resources:&amplt;/p&ampgt; &amplt;ul&ampgt; &amplt;li&ampgt;&amplt;a href="http://www.f5.com/news-press-events/press/2010/20101214.html" _fcksavedurl="http://www.f5.com/news-press-events/press/2010/20101214.html"&ampgt;F5 Simplifies and Centralizes Access Management for Citrix Applications&amplt;/a&ampgt; &amplt;/li&ampgt; &amplt;li&ampgt;&amplt;a href="downloads.f5.com" _fcksavedurl="downloads.f5.com"&ampgt;BIG-IP v10.2.1 Download (Log in required)&amplt;/a&ampgt; &amplt;/li&ampgt; &amplt;li&ampgt;&amplt;a href="http://www.f5.com/products/big-ip/access-policy-manager.html" _fcksavedurl="http://www.f5.com/products/big-ip/access-policy-manager.html"&ampgt;BIG-IP Access Policy Manager&amplt;/a&ampgt; 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ps Resources: F5 Simplifies and Centralizes Access Management for Citrix Applications BIG-IP v10.2.1 Download (Log in required) BIG-IP Access Policy Manager BIG-IP Edge Gateway F5 YouTube ChannelBIG-IP Edge Client 2.0.2 for Android
Earlier this week F5 released our BIG-IP Edge Client for Android with support for the new Amazon Kindle Fire HD. You can grab it off Amazon instantly for your Android device. By supporting BIG-IP Edge Client on Kindle Fire products, F5 is helping businesses secure personal devices connecting to the corporate network, and helping end users be more productive so it’s perfect for BYOD deployments. The BIG-IP® Edge Client™ for all Android 4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich) or later devices secures and accelerates mobile device access to enterprise networks and applications using SSL VPN and optimization technologies. Access is provided as part of an enterprise deployment of F5 BIG-IP® Access Policy Manager™, Edge Gateway™, or FirePass™ SSL-VPN solutions. BIG-IP® Edge Client™ for all Android 4.x (Ice Cream Sandwich) Devices Features: Provides accelerated mobile access when used with F5 BIG-IP® Edge Gateway Automatically roams between networks to stay connected on the go Full Layer 3 network access to all your enterprise applications and files Supports multi-factor authentication with client certificate You can use a custom URL scheme to create Edge Client configurations, start and stop Edge Client BEFORE YOU DOWNLOAD OR USE THIS APPLICATION YOU MUST AGREE TO THE EULA HERE: http://www.f5.com/apps/android-help-portal/eula.html BEFORE YOU CONTACT F5 SUPPORT, PLEASE SEE: http://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/solutions/public/2000/600/sol2633.html If you have an iOS device, you can get the F5 BIG-IP Edge Client for Apple iOS which supports the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. We are also working on a Windows 8 client which will be ready for the Win8 general availability. ps Resources F5 BIG-IP Edge Client Samsung F5 BIG-IP Edge Client Rooted F5 BIG-IP Edge Client F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal for Apple iOS F5 BIG-IP Edge Client for Apple iOS F5 BIG-IP Edge apps for Android Securing iPhone and iPad Access to Corporate Web Applications – F5 Technical Brief Audio Tech Brief - Secure iPhone Access to Corporate Web Applications iDo Declare: iPhone with BIG-IP Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education,technology, application delivery, ipad, cloud, context-aware,infrastructure 2.0, iPhone, web, internet, security,hardware, audio, whitepaper, apple, iTunesBIG-IP Edge Client v1.0.4 for iOS
If you are running the BIG-IP Edge Client on your iPhone, iPod or iPad, you may have gotten an AppStore alert for an update. If not, I just wanted to let you know that version 1.0.4 of the iOS Edge Client is available at the AppStore. The main updates in v1.0.4: IPv6 Support Localization New iPad Retina Graphics The BIG-IP Edge Client application from F5 Networks secures and accelerates mobile device access to enterprise networks and applications using SSL VPN and optimization technologies. Access is provided as part of an enterprise deployment of F5 BIG-IP Access Policy Manager, Edge Gateway, or FirePass SSL-VPN solutions. BIG-IP Edge Client for iOS Features: Provides accelerated mobile access when used with F5 BIG-IP Edge Gateway. Automatically roams between networks to stay connected on the go. Full Layer 3 network access to all your enterprise applications and files. I updated mine today without a problem. psComplying with PCI DSS–Part 1: Build and Maintain a Secure Network
According to the PCI SSC, there are 12 PCI DSS requirements that satisfy a variety of security goals. Areas of focus include building and maintaining a secure network, protecting stored cardholder data, maintaining a vulnerability management program, implementing strong access control measures, regularly monitoring and testing networks, and maintaining information security policies. The essential framework of the PCI DSS encompasses assessment, remediation, and reporting. Over the next several blogs, we’ll explore how F5 can help organizations gain or maintain compliance. Today is Build and Maintain a Secure Network which includes PCI Requirements 1 and 2. PCI DSS Quick Reference Guide, October 2010 The PCI DSS requirements apply to all “system components,” which are defined as any network component, server, or application included in, or connected to, the cardholder data environment. Network components include, but are not limited to, firewalls, switches, routers, wireless access points, network appliances, and other security appliances. Servers include, but are not limited to, web, database, authentication, DNS, mail, proxy, and NTP servers. Applications include all purchased and custom applications, including internal and external web applications. The cardholder data environment is a combination of all the system components that come together to store and provide access to sensitive user financial information. F5 can help with all of the core PCI DSS areas and 10 of its 12 requirements. Requirement 1: Install and maintain a firewall and router configuration to protect cardholder data. PCI DSS Quick Reference Guide description: Firewalls are devices that control computer traffic allowed into and out of an organization’s network, and into sensitive areas within its internal network. Firewall functionality may also appear in other system components. Routers are hardware or software that connects two or more networks. All such devices are in scope for assessment of Requirement 1 if used within the cardholder data environment. All systems must be protected from unauthorized access from the Internet, whether via e-commerce, employees’ remote desktop browsers, or employee email access. Often, seemingly insignificant paths to and from the Internet can provide unprotected pathways into key systems. Firewalls are a key protection mechanism for any computer network. Solution: F5 BIG-IP products provide strategic points of control within the Application Delivery Network (ADN) to enable truly secure networking across all systems and network and application protocols. The BIG-IP platform provides a unified view of layers 3 through 7 for both general reporting and alerts and those required by ICSA Labs, as well as for integration with products from security information and event management (SIEM) vendors. BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM) offers native, high-performance firewall services to protect the entire infrastructure. BIG-IP LTM is a purpose-built, high-performance Application Delivery Controller (ADC) designed to protect Internet data centers. In many instances, BIG-IP LTM can replace an existing firewall while also offering scalability, performance, and persistence. Running on an F5 VIPRION chassis, BIG-IP LTM can manage up to 48 million concurrent connections and 72 Gbps of throughput with various timeout behaviors and buffer sizes when under attack. It protects UDP, TCP, SIP, DNS, HTTP, SSL, and other network attack targets while delivering uninterrupted service for legitimate connections. The BIG-IP platform, which offers a unique Layer 2–7 security architecture and full packet inspection, is an ICSA Labs Certified Network Firewall. Replacing stateful firewall services with BIG-IP LTM in the data center architecture Requirement 2: Do not use vendor-supplied defaults for system passwords and other security parameters. PCI DSS Quick Reference Guide description: The easiest way for a hacker to access your internal network is to try default passwords or exploits based on the default system software settings in your payment card infrastructure. Far too often, merchants do not change default passwords or settings upon deployment. This is akin to leaving your store physically unlocked when you go home for the night. Default passwords and settings for most network devices are widely known. This information, combined with hacker tools that show what devices are on your network, can make unauthorized entry a simple task if you have failed to change the defaults. Solution: All F5 products allow full access for administrators to change all forms of access and service authentication credentials, including administrator passwords, application service passwords, and system monitoring passwords (such as SNMP). Products such as BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM) and BIG-IP Edge Gateway limit remote connectivity to only a GUI and can enforce two-factor authentication, allowing tighter control over authenticated entry points. The BIG-IP platform allows the administrator to open up specific access points to be fitted into an existing secure network. BIG-IP APM and BIG-IP Edge Gateway offer secure, role-based administration (SSL/TLS and SSH protocols) and virtualization for designated access rights on a per-user or per-group basis. Secure Vault, a hardware-secured encrypted storage system introduced in BIG-IP version 9.4.5, protects critical data using a hardware-based key that does not reside on the appliance’s file system. In BIG-IP v11, companies have the option of securing their cryptographic keys in hardware, such as a FIPS card, rather than encrypted on the BIG-IP hard drive. The Secure Vault feature can also encrypt certificate passwords for enhanced certificate and key protection in environments where FIPS 140-2 hardware support is not required, but additional physical and role-based protection is preferred. Secure Vault encryption may also be desirable when deploying the virtual editions of BIG-IP products, which do not support key encryption on hardware. Next: Protect Cardholder Data psOde to FirePass
A decade ago, remote VPN access was a relatively new concept for businesses; it was available only to a select few who truly needed it, and it was usually over a dial-up connection. Vendors like Cisco, Check Point, and Microsoft started to develop VPN solutions using IPsec, one of the first transport layer security protocols, and RADIUS Server. At first organizations had to launch the modem and enter the pertinent information, but soon client software was offered as a package. This client software had to be installed, configured, and managed on the user’s computer. As high-speed broadband became a household norm and SSL/TLS matured, the SSL VPN arrived, allowing secure connections via a browser-based environment. Client pre-installation and management hassles were eliminated; rather the masses now had secure access to corporate resources with just a few browser components and an appliance in the data center. These early SSL VPNs, like the first release of F5’s FirePass, offered endpoint checks and multiple modes of access depending on user needs. At the time, most SSL VPNs were limited in areas like overall performance, logins per second, concurrent sessions/users, and in some cases, throughput. Organizations that offered VPN extended it to executives, frequent travelers, and IT staff, and it was designed to provide separated access for corporate employees, partners, and contractors over the web portal. But these organizations were beginning to explore company-wide access since most employees still worked on-site. Today, almost all employees have multiple devices, including smartphones, and most companies offer some sort of corporate VPN access. By 2015, 37.2 percent of the worldwide workforce will be remote and therefore mobile—that’s 1.3 billion people. Content is richer, phones are faster, and bandwidth is available—at least via broadband to the home. Devices need to be authenticated and securely connected to corporate assets, making a high-performance Application Delivery Controller (ADC) with unified secure access a necessity. As FirePass is retired, organizations will have two ADC options with which to replace it: F5 BIG-IP Edge Gateway, a standalone appliance, and BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM), a module that can be added to BIG-IP LTM devices. Both products are more than just SSL VPNs—they’re the central policy control points that are critical to managing dynamic data center environments. A Little History F5’s first foray into the SSL VPN realm was with its 2003 purchase of uRoam and its flagship product, FirePass. Although still small, Infonetics Research predicted that the SSL VPN market will swell from around $25 million [in 2002] to $1 billion by 2005/6 and the old meta Group forecasted that SSL-based technology would be the dominant method for remote access, with 80 percent of users utilizing SSL by 2005/6. They were right—SSL VPN did take off. Using technology already present in web browsers, SSL VPNs allowed any user from any browser to type in a URL and gain secure remote access to corporate resources. There was no full client to install—just a few browser control components or add-on to facilitate host checks and often, SSL-tunnel creation. Administrators could inspect the requesting computer to ensure it achieved certain levels of security, such as antivirus software, a firewall, and client certificates. Like today, there were multiple methods to gain encrypted access. There was (and still is) the full layer-3 network access connection; a port forwarding or application tunnel–type connection; or simply portal web access through a reverse proxy. SSL VPNs Mature With more enterprises deploying SSL VPNs, the market grew and FirePass proved to be an outstanding solution. Over the years, FirePass has lead the market with industry firsts like the Visual Policy Editor, VMware View support, group policy support, an SSL client that supported QoS (quality of service) and acceleration, and integrated support with third-party security solutions. Every year from 2007 through 2010, FirePass was an SC Magazine Reader Trust finalist for Best SSL VPN. As predicted, SSL VPN took off in businesses; but few could have imagined how connected the world would really become. There are new types of tablet devices and powerful mobile devices, all growing at accelerated rates. And today, it’s not just corporate laptops that request access, but personal smartphones, tablets, home computers, televisions, and many other new devices that will have an operating system and IP address. As the market has grown, the need for scalability, flexibility, and access speed became more apparent. In response, F5 began including the FirePass SSL VPN functionality in the BIG-IP system of Application Delivery Controllers, specifically, BIG-IP Edge Gateway and BIG-IP Access Policy Manager (APM). Each a unified access solution, BIG-IP Edge Gateway and BIG-IP APM are scalable, secure, and agile controllers that can handle all access needs, whether remote, wireless, mobile, or LAN. The secure access reigns of FirePass have been passed to the BIG-IP system; by the end of 2012, FirePass will no longer be available for sale. For organizations that have a FirePass SSL VPN, F5 will still offer support for it for several years. However those organizations are encouraged to test BIG-IP Edge Gateway or BIG-IP APM. Unified Access Today The accelerated advancement of the mobile and remote workforce is driving the need to support tens of thousands concurrent users. The bursting growth of Internet traffic and the demand for new services and rich media content can place extensive stress on networks, resulting in access latency and packet loss. With this demand, the ability of infrastructure to scale with the influx of traffic is essential. As business policies change over time, flexibility within the infrastructure gives IT the agility needed to keep pace with access demands while the security threats and application requirements are constantly evolving. Organizations need a high-performance ADC to be the strategic point of control between users and applications. This ADC must understand both the applications it delivers and the contextual nature of the users it serves. BIG-IP Access Policy Manager BIG-IP APM is a flexible, high-performance access and security add-on module for either the physical or virtual edition of BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager (LTM). BIG-IP APM can help organizations consolidate remote access infrastructure by providing unified global access to business-critical applications and networks. By converging and consolidating remote access, LAN access, and wireless connections within a single management interface, and providing easy-to-manage access policies, BIG-IP APM can help free up valuable IT resources and scale cost-effectively. BIG-IP APM protects public-facing applications by providing policy-based, context-aware access to users while consolidating access infrastructure. BIG-IP Edge Gateway BIG-IP Edge Gateway is a standalone appliance that provides all the benefits of BIG-IP APM—SSL VPN remote access security—plus application acceleration and WAN optimization services at the edge of the network—all in one efficient, scalable, and cost-effective solution. BIG-IP Edge Gateway is designed to meet current and future IT demands, and can scale up to 60,000 concurrent users on a single box. It can accommodate all converged access needs, and on a single platform, organizations can manage remote access, LAN access, and wireless access by creating unique policies for each. BIG-IP Edge Gateway is the only ADC with remote access, acceleration, and optimization services built in. To address high latency links, technologies like intelligent caching, WAN optimization, compression, data deduplication, and application-specific optimization ensure the user is experiencing the best possible performance, 2 to 10 times faster than legacy SSL VPNs. BIG-IP Edge Gateway gives organizations unprecedented flexibility and agility to consolidate all their secure access methods on a single device. FirePass SSL VPN Migration A typical F5 customer might have deployed FirePass a few years ago to support RDP virtual desktops, endpoint host checks, and employee home computers, and to begin the transition from legacy IPsec VPNs. As a global workforce evolved with their smartphones and tablets, so did IT's desire to consolidate their secure access solutions. Many organizations have upgraded their FirePass controller functionality to a single BIG-IP appliance. Migrating any system can be a challenge, especially when it is a critical piece of the infrastructure that global users rely on. Migrating security devices, particularly remote access solutions, can be even more daunting since policies and settings are often based on an identity and access management framework. Intranet web applications, network access settings, basic device configurations, certificates, logs, statistics, and many other settings often need to be configured on the new controller. FirePass can make migrating to BIG-IP Edge Gateway or BIG-IP APM a smooth, fast process. The FirePass Configuration Export Tool, available as a hotfix (HF-359012-1) for FirePass v6.1 and v7, exports configurations into XML files. Device management, network access, portal access, and user information can also all be exported to an XML file. Special settings like master groups, IP address pools, packet filter rules, VLANS, DNS, hosts, drive mappings, policy checks, and caching and compression are saved so an administrator can properly configure the new security device. It’s critical that important configuration settings are mapped properly to the new controller, and with the FirePass Configuration Export Tool, administrators can deploy the existing FirePass configurations to a new BIG-IP Edge Gateway device or BIG-IP APM module. A migration guide will be available shortly. SSL VPNs like FirePass have helped pave the way for easy, ubiquitous remote access to sensitive corporate resources. As the needs of the corporate enterprise change, so must the surrounding technology tasked with facilitating IT initiates. The massive growth of the mobile workforce and their devices, along with the need to secure and optimize the delivery of rich content, requires a controller that is specifically developed for application delivery. Both BIG-IP Edge Gateway and BIG-IP APM offer all the SSL VPN functionality found in FirePass, but on the BIG-IP platform. ps Resources: 2011 Gartner Magic Quadrant for SSL VPNs F5 Positioned in Leaders Quadrant of SSL VPN Magic Quadrant SOL13366 - End of Sale Notice for FirePass SOL4156 - FirePass software support policy Secure Access with the BIG-IP System | (whitepaper) FirePass to BIG-IP APM Migration Service F5 FirePass to BIG-IP APM Migration Datasheet FirePass Wiki Home Audio Tech Brief - Secure iPhone Access to Corporate Web Applications In 5 Minutes or Less - F5 FirePass v7 Endpoint Security Pete Silva Demonstrates the FirePass SSL-VPN Technorati Tags: F5, infrastructure 2.0, integration, cloud connect, Pete Silva, security, business, education, technology, application delivery, intercloud, cloud, context-aware, infrastructure 2.0, automation, web, internetiDo Declare: iPhone with BIG-IP
Who would have imagined back in 1973 when Martin Cooper/Motorola dialed the first portable cellular phone call, that one day we'd be booking airline tickets, paying bills, taking pictures, watching movies, getting directions, emailing and getting work done on a little device the size of a deck of cards. As these 'cell-phones' have matured, they've also become an integral part of our lives on a daily basis. No longer are they strictly for emergency situations when you need to get help, now they are attached to our hip with an accompanying ear apparatus as if we've evolved with new bodily appendages. People have grown accustomed to being 'connected' everywhere. There have been mobile breakthroughs over the years, like having 3G/4G networks and Wi-Fi capability, but arguably one of the most talked about and coveted mobile devices in recent memory is the Apple iPhone. Ever since the launch of the iPhone in 2007, it has changed the way people perceive and use mobile devices. It's not just the tech-savvy that love the iPhone, it's Moms, Florists, Celebrities, Retailers and everyone in between that marvel at the useful ways iPhone can be used, and for their very own novel purpose. There are literally hundreds of thousands of apps available for iPhone, from the silly and mundane to banking and business. Browsing the web is a breeze with the iPhone with the ability to view apps in both portrait and landscape modes. The ability to zoom and 'pinch' with just your fingers made mobile browsing tolerable, even fun from an iPhone. Shopping from your cell phone is now as common as ordering a cup of coffee - often at the same time! iPhone developers are pushing the limits with augmented reality applications where you can point your iPhone into the sky and see the flight number, speed, destination and other such details as planes fly by. When the iPhone was first introduced and Apple started promoting it as a business capable device, it was missing a few important features. Many enterprises, and small businesses for that matter, use Microsoft products for their corporate software - Exchange for email, Word for documents, Excel for spreadsheets and PowerPoint for presentations. Those were, as expected, not available on the iPhone. As new generations of iPhones hit the market and iOS matured, things like iPhone Exchange ActiveSync became available and users could now configure their email to work with Exchange Server. Other office apps like Documents-to-Go make it possible for iPhone users to not only to view Microsoft Word and Excel documents, but they were able to create and edit them too. Today, there are business apps from Salesforce, SAP and Oracle along with business intelligence and HR apps. Companies can even lock down and locate a lost or stolen iPhone. Business users are increasingly looking to take advantage of Apple iOS devices in the corporate environment, and as such IT organizations are looking for ways to allow access without compromising security, or risking loss of endpoint control. IT departments who have been slow to accept the iPhone are now looking for a remote access solution to balance the need for mobile access and productivity with the ability to keep corporate resources secure. The F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal app for iOS devices streamlines secure mobile access to corporate web applications that reside behind BIG-IP Access Policy Manager, BIG-IP Edge Gateway and FirePass SSL VPN. Using the Edge Portal application, users can access internal web pages and web applications securely, while the new F5 BIG-IP Edge Client app offers complete network access connection to corporate resources from an iOS device; a complete VPN solution for both the iPhone and iPad. The BIG-IP Edge Portal App allows users to access internal web applications securely and offers the following features: User name/password authentication Client certificate support Saving credentials and sessions SSO capability with BIG-IP APM for various corporate web applications Saving local bookmarks and favorites Accessing bookmarks with keywords Embedded web viewer Display of all file types supported by native Mobile Safari Assuming an iPhone is a trusted device and/or network access from an iPhone/iPad is allowed, then the BIG-IP Edge Client app offers all the BIG-IP Edge Portal features listed above, plus the ability to create an encrypted, optimized SSL VPN tunnel to the corporate network. BIG-IP Edge Client offers a complete network access connection to corporate resources from an iOS device. With full VPN access, iPhone/iPad users can run applications such as RDP, SSH, Citrix, VMware View, VoIP/SIP, and other enterprise applications. The BIG-IP Edge Client app offers additional features such as Smart Reconnect, which enhances mobility when there are network outages, when users roaming from one network to another (like going from a mobile to Wi-Fi connection), or when a device comes out of hibernate/standby mode. Split tunneling mode is also supported, allowing users to access the Internet and internal resources simultaneously. BIG-IP Edge Client and Edge Portal work in tandem with BIG-IP Edge Gateway, BIG-IP APM and FirePass SSL VPN solutions to drive managed access to corporate resources and applications, and to centralize application access control for mobile users. Enabling access to corporate resources is key to user productivity, which is central to F5’s dynamic services model that delivers on-demand IT. ps Resources F5 Announces Two BIG-IP Apps Now Available at the App Store F5 BIG-IP Edge Client App F5 BIG-IP Edge Portal App F5 BIG-IP Edge Client Users Guide iTunes App Store Securing iPhone and iPad Access to Corporate Web Applications – F5 Technical Brief Audio Tech Brief - Secure iPhone Access to Corporate Web Applications Is the iPhone Finally Ready for Business Use? iPhone in Business The next IT challenge: Mobile device management Use Your iPhone to See Where Planes are Headed
F5 Friday: There’s an App for That (And It’s In the App Store)
The consumerization of IT is well underway. Supporting secure remote access via what are traditionally “consumer” gadgets is a must. In the days when Web 2.0 was forcing its way into IT along with the Millennials the warning went out to IT: either you adopt the technology or you’ll lose control because youngins’ are going to bring it with them whether you like it or not. Since that time the “adopt or else” mantra has been one that IT has had to deal with regarding technology in general. cloud computing , consumer devices, social networking. IT has had to learn to incorporate and include these technologies in their overall support strategy whether planned or not. There are no signs such trends will slow. No place is that more evident than in the area of mobile devices. Consider research firm Gartner and its predictions for 2011 and beyond for IT organizations: By 2014, 90 percent of organizations will support corporate applications on personal devices. The trend toward supporting corporate applications on employee-owned notebooks and smartphones is already under way in many organizations and will become commonplace within four years. The main driver for adoption of mobile devices will be employees — i.e., individuals who prefer to use private consumer smartphones or notebooks for business, rather than using old-style limited enterprise devices. IT is set to enter the next phase of the consumerization trend, in which the attention of users and IT organizations shifts from devices, infrastructure and applications to information and interaction with peers. This change in view will herald the start of the postconsumerization era. By 2013, 80 percent of businesses will support a workforce using tablets. The Apple iPad is the first of what promises to be a huge wave of media tablets focused largely on content consumption, and to some extent communications, rather than content creation, with fewer features and less processing power than traditional PCs and notebooks or pen-centric tablet PCs. Support requirements for media tablets will vary across and within enterprises depending on usage scenario. At minimum, in cases where employees are bringing their own devices for convenience, enterprises will have to offer appliance-level support with a limited level of network connectivity (which will likely include access to enterprise mail and calendaring) and help desk support for connectivity issues. As the technology that connects us to the data center and to the applications upon which we rely on a daily basis to support the business – either directly or indirectly – continues to evolve so must vendors and providers evolve to support that technology. Apple’s successful tablets and smartphones continue to make their way both officially and unofficially into organizations everywhere and cannot be ignored as a method of access for both legitimate and illegitimate users. Remote access via an iPad or iPhone is nice, but secure remote access via an iPad or iPhone is even nicer. That’s why F5 this week released a BIG-IP Edge Client for Apple iOS devices, supporting full SSL VPN mobile access (and all the associated IT control and security) to corporate web applications. F5 BIG-IP Edge Client, in combination with customers’ existing Edge Gateway/BIG-IP Access Policy Manager or Firepass solutions, provides full SSL VPN access to internal web applications, file shares and other resources. Like the BIG-IP Edge Client applications for laptop platforms, Edge Client for iOS provides full layer three SSL VPN access and compression technology to improve user response times and experience. That’s important because it’s often the case that applications were not developed and designed with a mobile form factor in mind and may be “heavier” than mobile connectivity can efficiently deliver. Leveraging acceleration technology along with security enabled by a unified application delivery platform provides a boost to application performance over mobile networks that will go a long way toward ensuring a move toward mobile device connectivity remaining as productive and efficient as access via its tethered predecessors. F5 BIG-IP Edge Client is the second iOS release from F5, coming hot on the heels of the BIG IP Edge Portal app released in November. BIG-IP Edge Portal provides streamlined access to web applications, while BIG-IP Edge Client is a fully featured SSL VPN client for Apple mobile devices. The F5 ® BIG-IP Edge Client and Edge Portal Apps are available for free from the App Store on iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch devices. BIG-IP Edge Client BIG-IP Edge Portal F5 Friday: Multi-Layer Security for Multi-Layer Attacks F5 Friday: It’s a Data Tsunami for Service Providers F5 Friday: The 2048-bit Keys to the Kingdom All F5 Friday Posts on DevCentral F5 Delivers Essential Solutions Enabling Service Providers to Cost Effectively Support Mobile Traffic Growth Apple iPad Pushing Us Closer to Internet Armageddon Telecommute your way to a greener bottom line More Information about F5 BIG-IP Edge GatewayF5 Friday: The Dynamic VDI Security Game
Balancing security, speed, and scalability is easy if you have the right infrastructure. A dynamic infrastructure. All the talk about “reusing” and “sharing” resources in highly virtualized and cloud computing environments makes it sound as if IT has never before understood how to leverage dynamic, on-demand services before. After all, while Infrastructure 2.0 (dynamic infrastructure) may only have been given its moniker since the advent of cloud computing, it’s not as if it didn’t exist before then and organizations weren’t taking advantage of its flexibility. It’s a lot like devops: we’ve been talking about bridging that gap between operations and development for years now – we just never had a way to describe it so succinctly until devops came along. The ability to dynamically choose delivery profiles – whether it be those associated with acceleration and optimization or those associated with security – is an important facet of application delivery solutions in today’s highly virtualized and cloud computing environments. Call it “reuse” of policies, or “sharing” of profiles, whatever you like – this ability has been a standard feature of F5’s application delivery platform for a long, long time. This dynamic, on-demand provisioning of services based on context is the defining characteristic of an infrastructure 2.0 solution. In the case of VDI, and specifically VDI implemented using VMware View 4.5 or later, it’s specifically about the ability to dynamically provision the right encryption solution at the right time, which is paramount to the success of VDI when remote access is required. THE CHALLENGE Secure remote access (you know, for us remote and roaming folks who rarely see the inside of corporate headquarters) to hosted desktops that reside behind corporate firewalls (where they belong) requires tunneling all VMware View connections. Not an uncommon scenario in general, right? Tunneling access to corporate resources is a pretty common theme when talking secure remote access. The key here is secure, meaning encrypted which for most applications delivered today via the Web means SSL. For VMware View when RDP (remote desktop protocol) is the protocol of choice, that means a solution that scales poorly due to the intensive CPU consumption for SSL by the View security servers. And if PCoIP is chosen for its enhanced ability to deliver rich-media and perform better over long distances instead of RDP, then the challenge becomes enabling security in an architecture in which it is not supported (PCoIP is UDP based, which is not supported by View security servers). SSL VPN solutions can be leveraged and tunnel PCoIP in SSL, but there’s a significant degradation of performance associated with that decision that will negatively impact the user experience. So the challenge is: enable secure remote access to virtual desktops within the corporate data center without negatively impacting performance or scalability of the architecture. THE SOLUTION This particular challenge can be met by employing the use of Datagram Transport Layer Security (DTLS) in lieu of SSL. DTLS is a derivative of TLS that provides the same security measures for UDP-based protocols as SSL provides for TCP-based protocols, without the performance degradation. F5 BIG-IP Edge Gateway supports both SSL and DTLS encryption tunnels. This becomes important because View security servers do not support DTLS and while falling back to SSL may be an option, the performance degradation for the user combined with the increased utilization on View security servers to perform SSL operations do not make for a holistically successful implementation. BIG-IP Edge Gateway addresses this challenge in three ways: BIG-IP Edge Gateway offloads the cryptographic processing from the servers, increasing utilization and scalability of the supporting infrastructure and improving performance. Because the cryptographic processing is handled by dedicated hardware designed to accelerate and process such operations efficiently, the implementation scales better whether using DTLS or SSL or a combination of both. BIG-IP Edge Gateway can dynamically determine which encryption protocol to use depending on the display protocol and client support for that user and device. It’s context-aware, and makes the decision when the client begins their session. It leverages a dynamic and reusable set of policies designed to aid in optimizing connectivity between the client and corporate resources based on conditions that exist at the time requests are made. Lastly, BIG-IP Edge Gateway automatically falls back to using TCP if a high-performance UDP tunnel cannot be established. This an important capability, as a slower connection is generally preferred over no connection, and there are scenarios in which a high-performance UDP tunnel simply can’t be setup for the client. Infrastructure should support security, not impede it. It’s great to be able to leverage the improvement in display protocol performance offered by PCoIP, but not at the expense of security. Leveraging an intermediary capable of dynamically providing the best security services for remote access to virtual desktops residing within the corporate data center means not having to sacrifice speed or scalability for security. Related blogs & articles: WILS: The Importance of DTLS to Successful VDI F5 Friday: It’s a Data Tsunami for Service Providers F5 Friday: Beyond the VPN to VAN All F5 Friday Posts on DevCentral Some Services are More Equal than Others Service Delivery Networking Presentation Why Virtualization is a Requirement for Private Cloud Computing What is Network-based Application Virtualization and Why Do You Need It? You Can’t Have IT as a Service Until IT Has Infrastructure as a Service
Securing the Corporate Intranet with Access Policy Manager
Fire doors are used to minimize damage to a structure during a fire. In the event of a fire, a central monitoring system will trigger the release of the doors isolating flames and smoke at the epicenter of the disaster while protecting adjacent sectors. While most of our office buildings are built in this fashion, corporate IT environments are largely built like multi-story stick-built mansions with no segregation mechanisms. Someone playing with fire in the tool shed can bring the entire house to the foundation. Does your infrastructure have any such safety net? When engineers hear ‘VPN’ or access management, they think of a device that sits on the edge between the corporate intranet and the Internet. All too often, internal corporate traffic is allowed to bypass these barriers and access corporate resources directly. While there may be authentication mechanisms protecting these services, it is almost impossible to secure them all without placing some barrier between them and the users. Enter APM. APM is well suited as a demarcation point not only for access from the Internet, but also from the corporate user space. In any organization, users are inherently your largest security risk. Whether a user is accessing the intranet from a non-corporate sponsored machine from their house or a workstation in their cubicle, they should be expected to adhere to the same security standards. In a “flat” security model, all corporate users can see any resource (even if it is just a login page) whether or not they meet the authorization requirements. Is there really any reason why John in product development should ever be able to see the corporate payroll system? Even if he can’t access the information, he can still see it. That means if John’s workstation is compromised, an attacker may be able to use his access to execute an exploit against this system thereby gaining access to precious corporate information. This may be a far-fetched example, but such things have happened and in many cases they’ve made major news headlines. This is not the kind of press any large corporation wants. In terms of physical security, we can use APM to ensure that every packet that is exchanged between our user subnets and the secure corporate space is encrypted. This protects any insecure data from being compromised by an eaves dropping attack and does so at a fraction of the cost of fiber. If properly implemented, Access Policy Manager should not present any hurdles to the end user. In fact, with single sign-on (SSO) credential mapping features, APM should actually improve user experience. This means when Joan in human resources logs into her Edge Client in the morning and receives her session for the day, APM will cache her credentials. She won’t have to type her credentials every time she access the payroll system because APM will enter them for her. The end result of securing your corporate resources with APM is increased security for your environment and improved accessibility for your users. While nothing can protect against every potential security breach, APM can go a long way in ensuring that a single attack will not bring your organization to its knees.
