News Articles: Review

Review by Thomas W. Shinder
FileWay Enterprise Edition 2.0 for OWA 2003.

Everywhere Networks Corporation has released the latest generation of their Microsoft award wining FileWay Enterprise Edition 2.0. The big change with this new version integrates FileWay and their clientless viewing engine SecureView. In addition to allowing users to easily upload, download and manage folders/files/Shares, users can now double-click to view them from any browser. Opening files is secure, as the HTML Print-ready view is never cached or written to disk. All traces of the document are gone at session time-out or logoff.

Anywhere, Anytime, Any-device access presents the organization a unique set of security challenges. The primary security issue is that of downloading documents onto unsecured public workstations. Integrating FileWay with your current VPN solution allows you to establish a security policy that defaults to view-only until additional authentication is met for user and machines. This key feature allows you the fine-tuned granular access control that is the stock in trade for powerful SSL VPN-based remote access solutions. For example, when a device is identified as a wire-less PDA, FileWay will default to view-only mode.

FileWay’s Server-side HTML transformation removes both the technical and cost overhead of maintaining application specific viewers and editors on every remote device (if such viewer are available at all. Users prefer a quick print-ready view rather than waiting for a complete file download. Users also have the option to preview the document prior to downloading.

Some VPN vendors offer Java/Active X client cache cleaners to prevent the security risks associated with downloading sensitive files to untrusted machines, such as airport kiosks and unmanaged workstations. While such “cleaners” are great in concept, the fact is that most public terminals block them due to virus security concerns.. FileWay’s SecureView works in all situations due to its client-less design.

FileWay Enterprise deploys in either standalone mode, or integrates into Microsoft Outlook Web Access (OWA) and many Portal platforms, including: Sharepoint, Websphere, Plumtree, Oracle, and Peoplesoft. Or use the J2E SDK to develop your own application connector.

FileWay is a .Net web service and installs on MS server 2000-2003. It easily and quickly scales from small business to Global F500 enterprises and ASPs by interfacing with Active Directory and LDAP for user information. SecureView is a server-side transformation engine that supports over 325 different file types and converts them in real-time to an HTML print ready view while maintaining their original rich text formatting.
FileWay Enterprise Edition 2.0 is a powerful complementary technology to your IPSec or SSL VPN remote access systems. Bottom line: FileWay Enterprise is the Cadillac of web based remote access solutions for all organizations.