Virtual Private Network Vs. Reverse Proxy - Compaq d530 - Convertible Minitower Desktop PC Manual

Virtual Private Network vs. Reverse Proxy

Most people are using Virtual Private Network (commonly known as Tunnels) to connect to their
corporate networks. Even consumer-grade wireless and wired routers have VPN and some Firewall
and DMZ capabilities. An alternative to VPN that is rapidly gaining acceptance is the use of
reverse proxy to obtain pervasive access. Reverse proxy passes http traffic back and forth across
the firewall from the device to the back-end servers and web services – such as Microsoft
Exchange, database servers, file servers and any web application.
This is all done using http, https or http with AES, 3DES or other encryption to secure transmitted
data. The following screen shots demonstrate how Microsoft Exchange Server can connect to the
network without VPN, using HTTPS. This is an ideal solution for notebooks accessing wireless and
mobile networks.
Microsoft Exchange Server supports access to full PIM using Reverse Proxy when clicking "more settings."
Nearly all applications – and many software solutions – use this method, including: device
management, security solutions, PIM Synchronization, file sharing (such as Microsoft SharePoint)
and database synchronization. This can include rich media and voice applications as well as
Instant Messaging.
Microsoft SQL 2005 and Microsoft VisualStudio 2005 will be tightly integrated and will support
subsequent generations of the needed proxy code to enable synchronization of the database over
http, where developers can add the needed security – such as Advanced Encryption Standard
(AES), Secure Socket layer (SSL) or Data Encryption Standard (DES). AES is proving to be the
optimal encryption for mobile devices, due to its low requirements of memory and CPU processing
power. This has a huge impact on mobility in terms of battery life, time, price and total customer
experience.
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