With a workforce of over 60,000 and clients in over 130 countries, communications firm Nokia is well-equipped to offer companies a comprehensive VPN solution.

Nokia's VPN offerings are targeted to larger companies with multiple offices and remote users. The company identifies three stages of a VPN setup: the initial installation, expansion, and finally adapting an entire WAN to a VPN format. While the implementation may vary between each stage, there are two primary hardware products that Nokia produces.

The first is an integrated solution combining a firewall with a VPN. Operating using a Check Point VPN client, the Firewall/VPN line comes pre-configured and pre-tested, with remote management capabilities. As it is more cost-efficient, this offering is used primarily for smaller companies or for businesses that are in stages one and two.

The second offering is a selection of VPN gateways, designed to handle the VPN connection alone. These are meant to be used in conjunction with a firewall or other security systems, suitable for stages two and three. There are four different gateways available, ranging from a smaller gateway used by small enterprise businesses to very powerful gateways used by data centers. Each comes with client software, Java-based management tools, and a VPN gateway server. Additionally, using IP clustering, the gateways can be combined into a single powerful gateway, allowing several VPN connections to go to the same IP address.

Nokia can be contacted via their Web site, or by email at [email protected] (for North America), [email protected] (for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa), or [email protected] (for the Asia Pacific Region). Nokia can also be contacted by telephone; listings of local offices can be found on the company's Web site.