Nortel Intros VPN Gateway

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Nortel Networks (NYSE:NT)(TSX:NT) today announced a comprehensive security framework supported by new products that will enable enterprise customers to eliminate the boundaries in their existing communications infrastructure. Nortel Networks secure mobility framework is designed to enable enterprises to provide secure, flexible access to multimedia content in converged networks for mobile and remote users -- from anywhere and from any device -- while positioning companies to drive dramatically lower costs.

Nortel Networks new secure mobility framework is designed to help enterprise customers drive up to a 35 percent reduction of remote access expenses, based on Nortel Networks estimates. The framework provides a simplified security infrastructure that can help enterprises to minimize total cost of ownership by eliminating the need to deploy separate solutions. A key element of this is centralized security management across a variety of platforms, enabling deployment of security policies in the most cost-effective and consistent manner.

The Virtual Private Networking (VPN) products introduced as part of this secure mobility framework include a gateway expected to be the industry's first to offer both Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) VPNs from the same device.

Also introduced were a hardware solution that will bring SSL VPN capabilities to the existing Nortel Networks Contivity Secure IP Services Gateway portfolio and VPN gateway products; a new Contivity product that offers IPSec VPNs and firewalls for teleworkers and remote offices; a secure VPN portal solution; and enhancements to existing products that bring industry-leading security to both wired and wireless local area networks.

"Providing a comprehensive, integrated approach to managing and enabling secure remote access is critical in today's mobile environment," said John Girard, vice president and research director, Gartner. "The remote user needs to be able to focus on their job and not network access issues to be effective. Enterprises will benefit if they are able to use a single VPN platform to provision either SSL or IPSec with common interfaces for management, access controls and user interface."

"Analog Devices implemented a Contivity-based VPN solution almost three years ago," said Lawrence W. Loh, chief information officer, Analog Devices. "This has been very successful, and as a result our initial implementation of secure, Internet-based access has expanded to a much larger number of our employees and partners."

"Our workforce has become increasingly more mobile and we have expanded our use of converged applications, combining voice and data over a single connection," Loh said. "Nortel Networks secure mobility strategy is right on target, as it will integrate IPSec and SSL. It will also address the larger challenge of implementing a secure, multimedia-ready infrastructure across the multiple dimensions of security, access, administration and management."

Part of Nortel Networks 'One Network. A World of Choice.' enterprise technology vision, the secure mobility framework is designed to enable companies to increase the effectiveness of their business operations without compromising network performance or security, while supporting unrestricted mobility of business travelers and remote users.

"Nortel Networks understands the challenges of remote access security," said Atul Bhatnagar, vice president and general manager, Enterprise Data Networks, Nortel Networks. "The beauty of this solution is that it combines managed remote access, secure virtual private networks and advanced multimedia communication applications to deliver secure anywhere, anytime multimedia access. This approach is designed to increase employee productivity and offers the potential to yield a significantly-lowered total cost of ownership for a remote access infrastructure."

Managing a variety of different remote access methods, policies, clients, updates, patches and VPN solutions is complex, expensive and time-consuming. Nortel Networks secure mobility framework is designed to provide increased levels of access and simplify administration without compromising the security, control and manageability of existing VPN deployments.

Providing the foundation of the secure mobility framework, the following products are the latest additions to the company's security portfolio:

Nortel Networks Corp.