Open Mobile Plug-in to Junos Pulse

Monday, November 28th, 2011 Chris Witeck, Director Product Marketing

Some of you may have seen the earlier blog post referencing the press release that announced the Open Mobile integration for Juniper Networks Junos Pulse.

Today I want to provide a bit more context on why I think this is a big deal for the Enterprise. Let’s start at looking at some of the trends IT is facing. I think it is fair to say that IT is being asked to do more with less these days, with many of the investments in cloud computing and end-user liable devices designed to simplify the role of IT and move it away from infrastructure management. This way, IT can focus more on strategic initiatives that are core to the business.

Along these lines is a general desire to reduce the complexity of managing devices, partly to reduce the management burdens on IT, and partly to make devices such as laptops easier for users to use so they have less need to contact support. However, there still is a need to make sure that as IT reduces complexity there is not any compromise in security.

With these trends in mind, our technology partner Juniper designed Junos Pulse. Junos Pulse provides a unified client for Windows devices that consolidates VPN/Network connectivity, application acceleration and security into a single interface designed to minimize end user interaction. It is designed with the necessary intelligence to understand the user’s location (remote or on the network) and apply policy accordingly. The goal is to simplify, and minimize, the interactions required by users in order to connect to the network securely.

This makes sense to me, as one of the design goals we had with Open Mobile is to make the best connection choice for the user, so the user doesn’t have to. Partly to simplify the user’s experience, but partly to make the best decision. We believe that if you present the user with too many choices they will default to the easiest one, even if that is not the most secure or cost effective choice. With the Junos Pulse client, I think Juniper had the same belief.

So how does iPass Open Mobile work with Junos Pulse? With the Junos Pulse client, Juniper understood that connection management had an important role with providing that unified user experience for connectivity and security, where connectivity is more than connecting to the corporate network, but also connecting to the Internet itself. That is where iPass comes in. Through a Junos Pulse API, iPass Open Mobile can operate as a plug-in to the Junos Pulse Windows client. The user is presented with a list of available connection options within the Junos Pulse client, but the connection choices are managed by iPass. Organizations can still set connection policies for users on how they can establish Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Dial and Mobile Broadband connections just like they would with the standalone Open Mobile client, however they can have those policies apply to the Junos Pulse client. This provides a simpler experience for the user as there are less clients on the Windows device that they have to interact with.

To try this out, you need to be set up with access to both Junos Pulse and iPass Open Mobile. If your organization has a goal of simplifying the life of your end users and IT staff, I suggest it may just be worth checking out.

For more information check out you can check out more from iPass and from Juniper.

 

 

Tags: enterprise mobility, mobile employee, Security