SOA Software's XML VPN Appliance


SOA Software (formerly Digital Evolution), based in Santa Monica, CA, has announced XML VPN version 4.3. This new version of SOA Software's groundbreaking XML VPN product adds several key capabilities, including last-mile security, external service virtualization and support for WS-Policy.

The company designed and built XML VPN to make it easy for enterprises to securely provide and consume B2B Web services. It ensures the usability, security and reliability of Web services, enabling companies to create new business models for their partners to consume. XML VPN's innovative workflow mechanism enables companies to publish Web services, and invite their partners to securely and easily consume them.

"SOA Software's notion of an XML VPN is catching on with customers," said Jason Bloomberg, senior analyst at ZapThink. "Unlike a traditional VPN, the XML VPN is content-and application-aware. SOA Software can therefore connect companies to their business partners and customers in a secure, flexible, intelligent manner, leveraging the power of Web services and SOA for business-to-business interactions."

With version 4.3 the XML VPN proxy can digitally sign messages destined for internal services to prevent end-run attacks by external applications that could otherwise directly contact internal services protected by the XML VPN. This helps ensure the security of internal services and provides an end-to-end audit trail for all partner transactions.

XML VPN version 4.3 can act as a proxy for any external Web services, whether provided by another XML VPN device or not. This allows a company to use the XML VPN to provide its developers with internal versions of important third party services, and ensure the security and reliability of these services.

"Web services are emerging as one of the most effective ways to share and consume information with partners," said Diana Kelly, senior analyst at Burton Group. "Managing and exposing these services securely is a challenge.  Solutions that help companies leverage their existing identity management investment in a federated SOA environment can help speed adoption while maintaining an end-to-end trust model." 

XML VPN version 4.3 is the first B2B Web services security solution to support the emerging WS-Policy standard. Support for WS-Policy ensures that third party providers can discover the policies they must implement before attempting to communicate with a service. XML VPN is available today as software and an appliance.  Software starts at $5,000 per CPU.  Appliances start from $50,000.

"As companies move away from expensive proprietary integration mechanisms toward XML, Web services and SOA, the need for security and management of these services will continue to grow," said Eric Pulier, chairman and founder, SOA Software. "The XML VPN makes it easy for providers to enforce strong security policies and for their partners to comply with these policies."