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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

-1-www.sangfor.net

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-2-www.sangfor.net

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…