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 NetMotion
Mobility XE: The Key to Mobility
NetMotion Wireless's flagship product,
Mobility XE, is the acknowledged leader among mobile VPNs. Mobility XE provides
best-in-class security, mobility and management. But don't just take our word
for it — Mobility XE's strengths have been recognized in the marketplace.
Network Computing, in the first Mobile VPN category review, gave Mobility XE top
marks, recognizing it with an "Editor's Choice" award. For details, see VPN's go
Mobile. In addition, leading technology analyst firm, the 451 Group, recognized
NetMotion Wireless as "the clear leader in the Mobile VPN space." Most
important, over 800 customers have licensed Mobility XE software for more than
100,000 mobile workers.
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Mobility XE Delivers
Standards-based Security
Mobility
Management &
Control
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A Standards-based Secure, Virtual
Private Network Built for Mobile Users
Data traversing a wireless environment is
vulnerable to corruption, eavesdropping, and unauthorized access. Traditional
VPNs such as
IPSec and SSL may seem to solve the security problems, but they are
not designed to work over wireless networks. They are slow and crash frequently
— if they work at all.
To address these concerns, Mobility XE incorporates a
standards-based, secure, virtual private network designed for wireless
networking. It offers single-sign-on authentication through Microsoft Active
Directory, RADIUS, Kerberos, RSA SecurID, PEAP, and other prevailing standards.
Mobility XE also uses standard Microsoft Windows login credentials so there are
no additional steps to learn or passwords to remember.
The Mobile VPN encrypts all data transmitted between the
Mobility client and server using AES-the current gold standard for encryption
and available in 128-bit, 192-bit, and 256-bit strengths-or one of several other
standard methods. The algorithm can be configured globally or on a per-user
basis, or it can be disabled for mobile workers who do not require such high
security. Mobility XE uses FIPS 140-2 compliant encryption modules to meet U.S.
government security requirements. This security is tightly integrated with
Mobility XE's InterNetwork Roaming capabilities. No matter where client devices
move, mobile workers are automatically authenticated and the encrypted tunnels
are automatically established.
Mobility Benefits
What differentiates Mobility XE from IPSec
VPNs and SSL VPNs is its robust set of mobility-specific benefits: application
session persistence, network roaming and performance enhancements.
Roaming: Access Across Multiple Networks
Today's mobile workers use multiple public
and private networks. They include conventional wired LANs, high-speed wireless
networks on corporate campuses, hotspots in airport terminals or Internet cafes,
home connections, and wireless WANs available through cellular carriers. All of
these networks have different security and performance characteristics.
Mobility XE's InterNetwork Roaming™
turns this multi-network environment into an easily managed system. It lets
mobile workers transition between networks seamlessly, transparently, and
securely — and without having to think about their network connections. The
Mobility XE server accomplishes this by establishing a virtual IP address for
each user, for all communication with the enterprise applications. Even as
clients move and are assigned new IP addresses by various networks, the
enterprise application servers always see the same, unchanging virtual IP
address. There is no need to resegment networks, implement VLANs, or deploy
additional hardware to enable mobile workers to roam freely.
Protection Against Lost Connections and
Application Crashes
Solutions that merely enable cross-network
roaming only solve part of the mobility puzzle. Many enterprises have installed
these solutions only to find that their applications crash. That is because
typical enterprise applications are written to assume a continuous wired
connection.
Throughout the working day, mobile users often move into areas
where there is no coverage such as parking garages, stairwells, elevators, and
even airplanes. They also suspend their devices, change locations, and re-start
them. The severed connections trigger application crashes, leading to lost or
corrupted data, re-authentication, repeated data entry, and frustrated,
less-productive workers.
Mobility XE provides Application Session Persistence.
The Mobility server acts as a proxy that keeps the connections to the
application server alive — as the user crosses networks, or even shuts the
device off. To the enterprise application server, mobile users appear as if they
are continuously logged on via a wired network. When the client reconnects, the
Mobility server automatically resumes sending and receiving data. A user can
even start a multi-megabyte file transfer, power down, go on a week's vacation —
and boot up the device and resume the transfer exactly where it left off.
Performance
Mobility XE is designed to improve performance over wireless networks,
especially across slower Wireless WAN links
Faster Transmission Across Lower-Bandwidth Networks
Most applications and the TCP/IP protocol itself were designed to
operate over wire at gigabit speeds. Wireless transmissions are far less
predictable, and the packet sizes and timing parameters used for wired
transmissions are far less efficient when applied to a wireless
environment. Through its link optimizations, Mobility XE sets the
transmission parameters that are most efficient for each type of
wireless link. This reduces the number of retransmitted packets, excess
control information and other network "chatter."
In addition, Mobility XE applies data compression to traffic sent
over lower-speed links. The threshold is adjustable, allowing the most
efficient tradeoff between the CPU overhead introduced by compression,
and the speed gained by transmitting less data. Additionally, Mobility
XE allows the compression of large web images (JPEG or GIF),
particularly useful over slower wireless WAN networks. In tests,
Mobility XE has been shown to more than double the data throughput of
wide-area network links.
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Management Features
Quick, easy deployment
Powerful management console
Reliability & Scalability
Control via Policy Management
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Management/IT Benefits
Straightforward Installation
NetMotion Mobility XE offers a true plug-and-play solution, with no need
for custom software development or application rewrites.
Installation can be accomplished in hours — not days or weeks.
There are two components: a Mobility server, and a lightweight client
that is installed on every wireless laptop or handheld device. The
Mobility server runs on a Windows 2002 or 2003 server, and acts as a
proxy to enterprise application servers.
The client software runs in the background and automatically handles
the transitions as users roam across networks. Even as users change
locations or cross gaps in coverage, the only hint that Mobility XE is
at work is a small icon in the system tray. Clients are available for
every kind of portable device, using operating systems that include
Pocket PC, Windows CE, Windows Mobile (including Windows Mobile 5), and
versions of Windows from Windows 2000 to Windows XP.
Virtually any application that currently runs in a wired environment
and communicates over TCP/IP protocol can be wirelessly enabled with
Mobility XE.
Streamlined, Web-Based Management
Mobility XE includes a web-based administration and monitoring console
to which secure access is available from anywhere. The Mobility XE
console offers intuitive access to server and client status, settings,
license control, and (if it is installed) the administration of the
optional Policy Management module.
The Mobility console presents a graphical and statistical summary of
each server's health and current activity, as well as overall system
usage on a per-server and pool-wide basis. Administrators may also take
servers offline through the console for performing maintenance tasks. In
addition, the console reveals the activity for each mobile device
including authentication, roaming history, and data transmitted for each
location. It also reports more than 100 metrics and statistics including
operating system and battery life.
System administrators can grant access to operator users who can view
the system and client configurations and status, but not make changes.
This is useful for first-line troubleshooting by help desk personnel.
Capacity to Reliably Handle Thousands of Users
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High-Availability Features
Server pools
Load balancing
Automatic failover
Server Throttling
Mobility Warehouse
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A Mobility XE deployment can support up to 45,000 mobile users. Each
Mobility XE server can handle large numbers of users for extended
periods because it actively controls data flow by active methods rather
than merely caching data. And Mobility XE has multiple server
capabilities for supporting the largest enterprises:
- Server Pools. Multiple Mobility servers can be
configured and managed as a single, logical pool. The servers work
together automatically to service the combined client load. Large
enterprises are able to add new servers to the pool without
disrupting current users.
- Load Balancing. New client connections are
automatically distributed across the Mobility servers in the pool
based on the server's capacity, memory use, network traffic volume,
and CPU utilization. If servers in the same pool have different
capacities and power, load balancing automatically distributes the
load accordingly so users experience consistent network performance.
- Failover. If one server fails, the users don't
lose their connections. The other servers automatically
re-distribute the clients among themselves, in accordance with the
load balancing rules.
- "Server "Throttling". Server throttling
prevents sudden spikes in usage that users perceive as slowdowns in
system performance. When use of system resources reaches a
predefined threshold, each Mobility XE server automatically prevents
additional clients from establishing connections. Instead, the load
balancing redirects new connections to other servers. This ensures
that enough resources continue to be available to service the active
load, and also helps to combat denial-of-service attacks.
- Mobility Warehouse. Mobility XE stores system
information, user data, and device settings in a Mobility Warehouse
that can be located on a server in the pool, or on a separate
server. A backup copy can be stored on another machine so, if the
warehouse fails or becomes unavailable, the servers in the pool
automatically switch to the backup warehouse.
Control
Mobility XE offers an optional Policy Management module that provides
centralized, flexible tools for managing applications, devices, and
users in a wireless network environment. Mobility Policy Management
enables IT managers to control network costs, improve productivity, and
ensure data security over any wireless network. Ultimately, Policy
Management allows IT managers to ensure that wireless network usage and
performance are aligned with corporate IT policies and ROI goals.
For example, an administrator can restrict access to specific network
resources either by network, host (IP) address, or application name. In
addition, these access privileges can be dynamically enforced depending
on the network type, location, and/or time of day that the mobile worker
is connecting.
Policies are established centrally on the Mobility server and then
distributed to individual clients. Companies can enforce IT and
corporate security policies by assigning rules globally, to workgroups,
by class of device, or to individual users and devices.
Policy management provides substantial benefits in the areas of cost
savings, security and ease of use/ease of management.
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