Our Thumbnail Appraisal
Whale e-Gap Remote Access Appliance
Whale Communications and its enterprise-class SSL VPN gateway have been - until recently- overshadowed by the much larger marketing efforts of Juniper Networks and Aventail. But that has recently started to change. Whale has excellent technology, a distinct product strategy that centers on "application aware" security, and a unique development and marketing relationship with Microsoft. The e-Gap Remote Access appliance already offers strong perimeter and end point security protection. When Whale adds support for non-Windows devices in its next release, it will offer a very versatile and flexible remote access solution."
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SSL VPN Central Evaluation
We rate products on both how well they meet general enterprise requirements and they stack up against competition. And in our evlautaion guides we provide the data we used so you can determine how well the gateways would fit your particular security policies and IT environment.
| Feature Focus |
Primary Evaluation Critera |
Absolute Rating |
Relative Rating |
| Remote Access VPN | SSL encryption algorithms, key lengths; situational policies | Very Good |
Typical |
| Authentication | Integrated 2-factor solutions; compatability with existing directories/auth. services | Very Good |
Strength |
| Authorization | Flexibility to implement sophisticated user privilege policies | Excellent |
Strength |
| Access Methods | Breadth of application support - web & non-web; admin workload | Excellent |
Strength |
| User Device Support | Access methods supported on various types of remote devices | Very Good |
Typical |
| Endpoint Security | Gateway features; compatability w/3rd party endpoint security solutions; integration | Excellent |
Strength |
| Policy Management | Breadth of capabilities; administrative ease-of-use | Excellent |
Typical |
| Gateway Self-Protection | Ability to withstand direct security attacks on SSL VPN gateway | Excellent |
Strength |
| Internal Network Protection | Ability to detect and block network level attacks; integrated firewall; IDS/IDP | Excellent |
Strength |
| Application-Level Protection | Ability to detect and block application-specific attacks | Excellent |
Strength |
| Site-to-Site VPN | Encryption strength | Not Available |
Typical |
| Audit, Analysis and Reports | Security audit data capture and reporting capabilities | Good |
Typical |
| Service Level Management | Performance monitoring, forecasting and planning tools | Good |
Typical |
| High-Availability | Ability to withstand hardware failures; minimize downtime | Excellent |
Typical |
| Performance/Scalability | Number of concurrent users; user experience | No Performance
data |
Typical + |
| User Experience | Ease of use: complexity, familiarity, level of automation, online assistance | Excellent |
Typical + |
| Admin Experience | Ease-of-use defining and implementing security policies | Excellent |
Typical |
| IT Experience | Ease-of-use integrating into net infrastructure, and operating and maintaining the gateway | Excellent |
Typical |
| Product Line Breadth | Small, medium and large solutions; simple and complex configurations | Good |
No entry/small
system |
| Price - Point Positioning | Published pricing relative to primary competitors | Very Good |
Typical |