Managing Cisco Network Security
Manage the security of Cisco-based networks with the strategies detailed in this book.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Managing Cisco Network Security
Chapter 5: Virtual Private Networks
Introduction
The new economy is reshaping the world in which we live. Our organizations are changing the way they do business, the place in which they do business, and even the hours that their business is being conducted. Everything is changing!
New demands and challenges are placed on our networks on a daily basis. Not only do our networks need to keep pace with these changes, but often they are the vehicles for initiating them. Our networks need to be flexible, reliable, secure, and most of all, cost-effective. Traditional private line or Frame Relay-based WAN networks often don t allow enough flexibility or are not cost-effective. Remote Access Service (RAS) also suffers from these problems, since these services typically are built on the same infrastructure. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) provide solutions for many of these issues.
Until recently, concerns about security (insufficient or proprietary) have severely hampered the deployment of VPNs. IPSec has changed all of this.
What Is a VPN?
Chances are, no two networking cognoscenti will give you the same definition for a VPN. Vendors and the press have not been able to agree on a definition; what makes things worse is that a VPN can be implemented in so many different ways and at so many different layers of the OSI reference model that virtually any vendor can claim that its product is a VPN solution.
Simply put, a VPN is a network deployed on a shared infrastructure, employing the same security, management, and throughput policies applied in...
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