Doubling security: Raptor, Iona join forces to make CORBA, firewalls compatible

A partnership between two security software vendors could give carriers some added insurance in deploying distributed business applications and other new services over the Internet. Iona Technologies and Raptor Systems have partnered with the specific goal of integrating Iona's Orbix Wonderwall security solution with Raptor's Eagle family of firewall products.

Wonderwall uses a common object request broker architecture (CORBA) to facilitate the creation of Internet applications and permit the secure transmission of Internet inter-orb protocol (IIOP) packets across the firewall. IIOP is the generally accepted standard protocol for communication between objects on the Internet.

"Java, CORBA and IIOP are becoming increasingly popular as the standard way to extend customers' applications to the Internet," said Lance Urbas, senior vice president of engineering and services for Waltham, Mass-based Raptor.

"By working with one of the world's leading CORBA vendors, we can now enable our customers to build these applications securely while controlling access to their own networks," he said.

The combination will result in what Iona described as "the world's first commercial CORBA/IIOP-ready firewall product." Until the integration of CORBA into the software, firewalls previously have not allowed the transmission of IIOP. "With Raptor's use of Wonderwall, CORBA developers and users now have a firewall product that will facilitate full CORBA-based Internet applications," said Urbas.

This means that carriers, Internet service providers and other service providers will be able to incorporate firewalls into their security strategies and still be able to distribute object-oriented applications to their customers and receive object-based communications from customers and other carriers.

"Raptor's decision to bundle Wonderwall highlights the growing importance of CORBA and IIOP for Internet development," said Colin Newman, executive vice president of marketing at Boston-based Iona.

"Many of the world's leading Internet developers are choosing CORBA as the best way to build truly distributed applications that integrate platforms as diverse as MVS, Unix and Windows," he said. "With Raptor and Wonderwall, developers now have the tools to deploy these rich, distributed applications for full Internet deployment."

The new version of Wonderwall adds support for transformer hooks and HTTP tunneling. Both features can be used in conjunction with the system's IIOP-filtering capability.

The addition of transformer hooks allows developers to employ third-party products to encrypt traffic between Iona's OrbixWeb-based applets and Wonderwall for increased security. OrbixWeb is a solution for creating Java-based Internet applications.

Simultaneously with the Raptor announcement, Iona introduced a new CORBA/Java based version of the OrbixWeb. OrbixWeb 3.0 supports CORBA Naming Service natively in Java and also features a range of new graphical user interface tools that make the administration, deployment and management of Java/CORBA applications easier.

The enhanced system includes full support for the recently adopted OMG IDL-Java mapping, which makes it easier to give Java applications access over the Internet to data stored on MVS, Unix and Windows servers. This can provide carriers and ISPs with a secure infrastructure for mainstream, on-line commercial applications built in Java.

EXPRESSLY FOR SMALL CARRIERS

A new partnership between Siemens AG and Microsoft Corp. will focus on adapting Siemens' INXpress platform for intelligent network applications for the Windows NT Server network operating system. The system could provide smaller carriers with an intelligent network capability. Siemens will begin beta testing in 1998, with a product release tentatively scheduled for mid-1999.

DIGITAL'S IP PLATFORM SPANS GENERATIONS

Voicetek and Digital Equipment Corp. are developing a cost-effective integrated intelligent peripheral and service node platform for the development and deployment of integrated enhanced services on intelligent networks. Voicetek's Generations, a development and run-time environment for enhanced services, has been combined with the Digital AlphaServer IP platform to support SS7 links.