Cisco extends secure network access to iPhones

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 22 September 2010 10:51

Business IT - Networking

Cisco has released a version of its AnyConnect Secure Mobility client for the iPhone, providing secured access to Cisco networks.

The app - which requires iOS 4 and which is available from the iTunes App Store - is another significant development in enabling enterprises to embrace the iPhone with confidence into corporate networks. It follows the release just last week of a similar product from Juniper Networks: a Junos Pulse client for the iPhone. Both these products were foreshadowed in April when Apple released iOS 4 with SSL VPN support.

In a blog posting earlier this year announcing plans for the product, Cisco's director of security solutions marketing, Fred Kost, said the app would give iPhone users "an in-office experience to virtually any application or resource from their iPhone without compromising device battery or performance [and will provide] an optimised VPN connection (via DTLS) for latency-sensitive traffic, such as voice over IP (VoIP) traffic or TCP-based application access."

The Cisco AnyConnect Secure Mobility client is part of Cisco's Secure Borderless Network architecture, announced in March. In addition to providing secure access to corporate resources, administrators are able to apply access policies and other controls to the iPhone via Cisco AnyConnect security technology in the network.