PolicyVision

Policy Management in the Enterprise VPN

Indus River's vision for the Enterprise-class VPN (EVPN) is of global user access to business-critical information subject to private corporate policies. Because VPNs are established via the public Internet using secure tunnels that originate from inherently unmanaged personal computers, there is a need for an EVPN management solution that begins on the desktop, addresses the need for centrally defined VPN access policies, and dynamically enforces policy changes on a user-level or group-level basis.

Indus River Networks has defined a comprehensive policy management strategy for EVPNs called PolicyVision™, a network management framework contained in its RiverWorks Enterprise VPN solution. PolicyVision defines the process by which VPN policy elements are defined, enforced, and dynamically updated by a central site network administrator. It is based on a system architecture that enables centralized control over large communities of remote desktops configured with policy settings that govern their global network access.

Policy profiles are defined by four categories of management attributes that control VPN usage for tens, hundreds, or thousands of remote users connected to a corporate network via the public Internet. These four categories--Administration, Bandwidth, Cost and Security--are known as the ABC'S of policy management, and represent all of the protocol parameters, ISP service selections, cost controls and security methods used to define the connection profile of a given user community. Once defined, policy profiles are distributed and revised using a unique client synchronization protocol that operates as a background management channel during active VPN connections. Client synchronization is used to dynamically alter policy configurations, download system updates or to collect connection histories.

The benefits of this unique VPN architecture are great. Today, the PolicyVision management environment enables greater connectivity for remote users while providing the necessary controls that network administrators require. Looking forward, it provides a migration strategy for integrating advanced enterprise-wide directory services and public key infrastructures that complement Indus River's VPN-specific policy definition and enforcement capabilities.

PolicyVision - Presentations

This presentation gives you an in-depth overview of PolicyVision, the architectural framework for the end-to-end management of the RiverWorks EVPN solution. The four dimensions of policy management, Administration Tools, Bandwidth Optimization, Cost Controls and Security Management are described in detail.

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