High availability and security for VPN and wireless networks

13 October 2003 ITU Telecom World, Geneva Lightwave Europe -- The new High-Availability option for Lightning MultiCom firewalls and VPN gateways is designed to reproduce the high availability of local computer networks on secured remote connections to corporate networks and VPNs.

The Swiss specialist in network security, Lightning, has announced the launch of High-Availability here at Telecom 2003 - starting with its upcoming software release 3.6. This feature allows to group pairs or more of Lightning gateways into so-called virtual redundant gateway clusters.

The newly integrated ADSL modem, as well as the future industrial 802.11 wireless base-station, can also be part of this redundancy scheme, opening up new security applications in the DSL and wireless fields.

This option is also available on the entry-level MultiCom SpeedSurf, a handheld firewall and full IPSec VPN gateway. This hardware firewall, which is small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, can be set up without any special configuration or computer knowledge, between an existing computer network and an ADSL or cable modem.

It is based on the open-source Linux software, and incorporates technology employed by the by the European Space Agency as well as numerous banks and government departments.

Lightning's High-Availability feature has been implemented using Internet Engineering Task Force's (IETF) standards and latest standard-tracked drafts, such as IPSec DPD and VRRP, using Linux implementations thanks to Lightning's choice of Linux as the embedded operating system. Load sharing schemes are also supported.

Lightning has been developing and manufacturing secure-access products in Switzerland since 1992 for professional business sectors requiring high security levels, such as the banking, government and aerospace sectors. A few tens of thousands products have already been sold. Some good news for all those clients: their Firewall products can be upgraded.

Product-development takes place in Switzerland in collaboration with Apliware and Lightning's products are manufactured in Switzerland by Firstec.