Barracuda SSL VPN

At Barracuda Networks, 2012 is the Year of the School

Friday, February 10th, 2012

by Sanjay Ramnath, Product Manager

K-12 schools, districts, and agencies simply can’t afford not to make sure that their networks, data, and users are totally secure—especially with vulnerable students accessing those networks every day. The dangers are too great to take any chances. And with mobile devices and social-media usage extending the threat landscape in new directions, yesterday’s solutions simply aren’t good enough.

That’s why 2012 will see Barracuda Networks reaching out to K-12 organizations in North America—including public and private schools, school districts, and county and state education agencies—to let them know that effective, affordable, easy-to-manage security solutions are out there, optimized just for them.

To learn more about how Barracuda solutions address the unique network security challenges facing K-12 organizations, please download this informative white paper, entitled  “Dynamic Content Security for K-12 Organizations.”

The Barracuda Advantage

“Dynamic Content Security” is the name for a more holistic, integrated approach to network security that delivers:

  • Improved network performance
  • Dramatic cost savings—both long- and short-term
  • Total content security that protects every user—including mobile and off-network users
  • Fine-grained controls to optimize capacity and access
  • Simple, centralized control panel to make network management a breeze (plus award-winning customer and technical support for when it’s not)
  • Comprehensive forensic reporting to optimize resources and budgets, identify bandwidth-hogging users and apps, demonstrate regulatory compliance, and manage civil or criminal liability
  • Multiple deployment options—including on-site appliances, virtual appliances, cloud-based services, or a combination—to ensure a solution that fits your needs, capabilities, and budget

Promotional Payment Terms for K-12 Customers

We understand the intense budget pressures affecting schools, districts, and agencies today. That’s why we created the K-12 Budget Alignment Program . This limited-time promotion allows qualified North American K-12 customers to postpone paying for their Barracuda security solutions until July 31, 2012—long enough to take advantage of new-fiscal-year budget allocations.

With the K-12 Budget Alignment Program 2012, security and compliance don’t have to wait; but paying for them can.

And there’s more, K-12 organizations may also qualify for a significant discount off the retail list price of selected Barracuda solutions. To learn more, contact Barracuda today at 1-888-ANTI-SPAM (1-888-268-4772).

Managing the Transformation in Education

K-12 education is changing, and technology is driving that change. The benefits of these changes are immense. But without a new approach to security, the threats they bring could easily overwhelm the advantages.

At Barracuda, we’re committed to helping K-12 organizations use Dynamic Content Security to manage that transformation safely, securely, simply, and affordably. With Barracuda solutions in place, schools can rest assured that their user community is protected; that network management will continue to be streamlined and simple; and that their IT costs will be kept as low as possible well into the future.

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Mobile Connectivity with the Barracuda SSL VPN

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Posted by:  Kaivan Jesung product manager

As product manager for the Barracuda SSL VPN, I often speak with IT administrators who are required to provide their remote employees access to corporate network resources from iPhones, iPads and other mobile devices. This is an growing concern as mobile devices are increasingly used by sales teams, road warriors, stay at home workers and other remote employees.With a built-in PPTP/L2TP server, the Barracuda SSL VPN appliance and the Barracuda SSL VPN Vx virtual appliance make it easy to provide network access to remote users from mobile devices. Remote users just need to configure the default VPN clients on the mobile devices with the IP address or hostname of their corporate SSL VPN and appropriate authentication credentials. Once connected, users can access network resources, remote desktop into their work PC or use other custom applications that may require access to the corporate network. For example, with a VPN connection established, you can use the free Barracuda Message Archiver companion iPhone application to provide users secure remote access to email messages archived on the corporate Barracuda Message Archiver.

The Barracuda SSL VPN is the ideal solution to provide users with secure, clientless remote access to network resources. By providing browser-based access from desktops and laptops combined with using the built-in client for mobile devices, the Barracuda SSL VPN connects users to their network from virtually anywhere. With no per-user fees and an easy-to-use interface, the Barracuda SSL VPN is a powerful tool for today’s remote users.

To learn more about the Barracuda SSL VPN, please visit http://www.barracuda.com/sslvpn or call Barracuda Networks for a free 30-day evaluation at 1-888-ANTI-SPAM or +1 408-342-5400. For more information on our other security and productivity solutions, please visit http://www.barracuda.com/products.

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Barracuda SSL VPN – Easy, Secure, Affordable Remote Access

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Posted by: Kaivan Jesung, product manager

With Spring break season upon us, I have noticed a number of my friends and colleagues working from home to take care of their kids. While I am sure the kids are not complaining, companies are challenged with providing secure, remote access to this sudden surge in home-based workers. I remember a time when the only people who required VPN access to their networks were sales people who spent the most time working from remote locations. Today, with advances in mobile computing, an increasing number of employees work from remote sites, home offices, hotel rooms and airports. Also, as many parts of the country thaw out from one of the roughest winters on record, maintaining productivity levels when bad weather strikes is highlighted as a major concern to organizations.  To address the increased reliance on remote access, companies depend on VPN solutions to provide connectivity to their users. However, traditional remote access VPN solutions are ineffective, complex and expensive. SSL VPN technology, on the other hand, offers an alternative to traditional VPNs by providing a secure, easy-to-use method for remotely accessing your company’s resources.

Drawbacks of Traditional VPNs

Traditional VPN technology, usually based on IPSec, was designed for site-to-site communication. While effective for connecting one office location to another, it does not adequately address the needs for remote access. For a remote user to connect to the corporate network via an IPSec VPN, a network administrator would need to install and configure client software on the remote user’s computer. Due to the functionality of such applications, the administrator may run into networking difficulties such as IP address conflicts, double NAT and VPN pass through problems. Also, once connected, the client becomes a full member of the secured network, able to see and access everything just as if the remote system was physically connected to the corporate network. Not only does this mean that the remote users must know the location of resources they are trying to access, but imagine maintaining network security when every remote user has full access to the network.  As a result, resolving these networking and security issues impairs the IT administrator’s ease of management while increasing support costs.

Benefits of SSL VPN Technology

SSL (Secure Socket Layer) VPNs don’t require any additional client-side VPN software as the components required to create a secure channel from the remote system are a part of all major Web browsers. Network addressing conflicts do not exist when using an SSL VPN because the remote system does not maintain an address on the internal network.

The SSL protocol operates in Layer 7, the application layer, allowing it to act as a full proxy for secured resources. An SSL VPN can maintain and enforce fine-grained access control policies to individual internal resources as well as individual users by intercepting all traffic between the authenticated remote system and the requested resource inside the secured network.

SSL VPNs therefore have the dual advantage of providing the flexibility to access network resources through any computer with a Web browser while providing a very high level of security by controlling how remote users view the corporate network.

The Barracuda SSL VPN Solution

To address the demands of the growing VPN market, Barracuda Networks provides the Barracuda SSL VPN a comprehensive solution for the SMB and enterprise markets. The Barracuda SSL VPN is an integrated hardware or virtual appliance solution that enables secure, clientless, remote access to internal network resources through an easy-to-use Web portal accessible from any browser. Network resources, such as Intranet sites, network folders and applications, can be organized by category so remote users can easily find what they are looking for.

IT administrators can secure the network by applying specific access control policies based on user and group identities configured through Active Directory. For example, employees belonging to the HR department, finance department and the executive team can be provided access to specific and relevant resources without exposing the entire network.  The Barracuda SSL VPN provides several additional layers of security including multifactor authentication, network access controls (NAC), virus checking for all uploaded files and virtual keyboard support. Also, all remote access events are logged for monitoring and reporting.

All of this power, security and ease-of-use is offered at an extremely affordable price point for organizations of all sizes with no per-user, per-connection or spike licensing fees commonly associated with VPN solutions.  The Barracuda SSL VPN is priced based on a simple subscription model enabling organizations to maintain productivity without a sudden increase in VPN licensing charges, when the next snowstorm hits.

For more information on the Barracuda SSL VPN, please visit http://www.barracudanetworks.com/sslvpn  or call Barracuda Networks for a free 30-day evaluation at 1-888-ANTI-SPAM or +1 408-342-5400.

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