e.com institute makes the third wave in network security a reality in South Africa

As Internet technology redefines the way in which people share vast quantities of information and enterprise partnering defines why this sharing is important, a new network security model has become imperative.

The Catch 22 is that the opportunity of information sharing has to be exploited while tight security over business information assets also remains paramount. To deal with this paradox, a new breed of product called accessware is being bandied around - and Internet Dynamics is emerging as a frontrunner with its Conclave product.

Accessware simply refers to network security based on enabling and enhancing secure access rather than simply blocking unwanted access, explains John Berry, joint managing director of new e-business company, e.com institute, which recently signed an agreement to represent Internet Dynamics` Conclave product set in Africa and the Middle East.

Internet Dynamics is a Microsoft Security Partner and Conclave, which is a security product and an information access tool combined into one, runs on and is fully integrated into Windows NT.

"Internet Dynamics is reinventing network security," says Berry. "Conclave integrates access control, information privacy, user identification, data integrity and information management - in other words, everything required to build a secure intranet or extranet."

It simplifies security administration and provides choice about how best to distribute this administration throughout the organisation. Berry adds that this means rich information is shared fast and with confidence, increasing the value of your network.

"It also means your network is easily scalable because the centralised administration bottleneck is eliminated. This is the future of accessware and the purpose of Conclave."

He says that today`s security issues revolve more around how knowledge and ideas can be safely shared rather than how to protect data. With firewalls already being pushed to their limits, it takes a product like Conclave to handle the often unpredictable patterns of business today.

"Conclave is both a security product and an information access tool," explains Berry. "It runs on the Windows NT server platform and regards Internet technology as the new standard in information sharing.

"The latest security components, including encryption and authentication schemes, are built into Conclave, rather than added on as an afterthought. This fresh approach allows the product to maximise security technology."

Firewalls have already demonstrated glaring inadequacies in single dimension products, lack of scalability and the difficulty of accommodating change. On the other hand, accessware, and Conclave in particular, create information-sharing relationships that emulate the natural distribution of trust in the enterprise and works in a similar way to people making decisions to share paper or verbal information.

"By distributing trust, ownership and policy relationships, Conclave mirrors the growth of the network and becomes as scalable as the underlying network itself," says Berry. "There is no practical limit to the size of network that Conclave can protect."