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Increase Productivitywith Sangfor EasyConnect
Reviewd by: Erik BlumPublished: June 2015
“Sangfor Easyconnect is a great combination of SSL-VPN, WAN acceleration and Application Delivery Virtual appliance end users will love.”
Outstanding
Features
Easy of use
East of installation
Pros
Great product, easy to install, easy to configure, unique features.
The product is at the early stages which in turn means only one thing. It can be further improved.
Cons
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Sangfor to the rescue
Yesterday I found one great product for remote users. I wish It was on
the market years ago. First let me tell you about my problem. We use
ERP application which is the main application in our environment.
Unfortunately it’s not web-based. We also have many locations, from
warehouses, distribution to remote offices. They all use ERP.
Because application is a classic Windows app, that means it can’t be
uused on tablets, phones. Users working from home also need to use it.
Remote desktop services (Terminal services) can solve the main problem.
IT can deliver application to remote locations easily. But there are two
problems. Even if the RDP protocol can ”stream” application to remote
locations, protocol by itself is still not efficient, hence Citrix invented ICA
protocol. If you know Citrix, then you know that while technology is good,
it costs an arm and a leg to buy it. And it also means that you have to add
additional additional cost to already expensive Remote desktop service licenses.
Recently, I stumbled on a second problem. Users need to use applications
remotely. From their mobile devices and even private computers. We still
use Juniper SA appliance for SSL VPN. I never got so many problems with
MAC users. Juniper Junos Pulse is not working well for IPhone users and
OSX users… They can find a refuge finding working remote connect on this
website.
I thought about I thought about Dell SonicWall as an alternative to SA appliance. You can
add RDP to users SSL-VPN screen and I heard that MAC users don’t have
problems connecting. But in the end, it’s not a solution. It is not that useful
when you consider that it’s main purpose is not application delivery.
I never heard about Sangfor until now. What shocked me was an image
from Gartner report, Sangfor is listed on reports for SSL-VPN, NGFW
and WAN optimization. For 3 years in a row. What can a company with
WWAN optimization, SSL-VPN an NGFW products invent to make remote
work easier?
The answer is Easyconnect.
EASYCONNECT
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Beauty of EasyConnect
Easyconnect is a combination of SSL-VPN, network
acceleration and RDP gateway. User has to login to
a web portal where he/she can authenticate. Just like
with SSL-VPN you can use any computer and install
a small client.
Once logged in, you can run applications that are
published on published on your Terminal Services server (RDS).
All network traffic is compressed and accelerated.
That means that you will need just a fraction of
network resources compared to classical RDP. This
comes handy when users need to use mobile data,
when users are roaming and even when you have a
bad connection. Because of network optimizations,
eeven applications like Autodesk Autocad will work great.
But serving applications is not all. You can grant your
users additional access to your resources. You can
enable access to file share, Remote Desktop or Easy
Connect console.
There is also a compulsory mobile application available
for IOS and Android operating systems. Mobile users can
uuse mobile phones or tablets to connect to Easyconnect
and use applications you have deployed securely.
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The Backend
Easyconnect installation is pretty simple.
From Sangfor web page you download a
virtual appliance which you easily import
to your virtual infrastructure. One network
interface is dedicated to DMZ and the other
is dedicated to internal network. When you
cconnect to the appliance for the first time
you login to the console with credentials
admin/admin.
On the Dashboard, you get essential information
like CPU usage, Throughput, Concurrent Sessions,
Concurrent users, and Byte Cache. You can
immediately see how the appliance is utilized.
Then Then you can add Terminal services server
so that you can start creating policies for
applications and users.
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Easyconnect Security
Security is one of the strongest assets. Because
EasyConnect was created by the team that is working
on a security products, you can really secure your
environment. For example, you can set up a rule that
limits access to computers with only certain type of
operating system, operating system version i.e
WWindows 7 and you can even limit access by the
Service Pack version.
You can also set up an attribute check. For example,
you can only allow access if the client has a specified
file in certain directory. But that is just the beginning.
You can define which process must be running, which
Anti-Virus software has to be installed. You can also
hhave a play with Registry data, various endpoint
features, source IP, WAN interface IP, etc….
If you require you can set up a fort. I mean, security
is really a strong asset and there are many checks
you can use to prevent unauthorized users to connect
to your infrastructure.
Conclusion
Easyconnect is a great way to deploy your applications to remote users. One example where it shines is that you
can extend your exisiting infrastructure. You don’t have to buy additional expensive SSL-VPN appliance, you don’t
have to upgrade your firewalls, you don’t have to buy a new device that offers latest and greatest, including
features you don’t need.
Instead, you can deploy Easyconnect. You can install in your virtual environment and easily set up policies and
applications for your users.
I I was really surprised with configuration. I thought that I will find a complicated GUI, hard to understand controls
and hardly logical configuration options. Instead, what I found was easy to understand, easy to setup and easy to
use product.
If you are interested in this kind of product, I recommend you to download a trial version and have a short trial.
It may surprise you…