Checkpoint announced availability (for inquiries yet,sale date is set on 31 of March) of their new project Abra – secured virtualized desktop solution. I myself haven’t seen nor tried this so can only judge from different sources. In essence we talk here about USB stick of approx. 4 Gb or 8 Gb that includes virtual image of the applications you need to do the work and optionally to connect securely to your workplace (to the Checkpoint gateway of course).
The testing (I know of) was done on their own employees that were given those Abra-sticks to work from home.
The way it works is pretty simple – you have encrypted (so they say) virtual desktop environment on stick ,
which you connect to any PC and upon entering user/pass can work using pre-installed and pre-configured
software on it . The sticks that Checkpoint gave to their workers contained Windows XP with set of usual software – browser, Microsoft Office etc. , also VPN client .
In short nothing new on the market except encryption – do a search on Virtual desktop infrastructure and you’ll get the idea. What interesting here is how they are planning to integrate this new buzz-project with all the rest of their line. Because otherwise it isn’t even worth trying to market it (put on USB VMware Player with windows XP and you get the same but without encryption).
The webpage from the CP is here:
Check Point Abra | Check Point Software
To see what people think about that you may go here:
CPUG.ORG discussion on Abra
If you have Partner level access to the Checkpoint site you may hear the Webcast presenting the Abra for the first time:
webcast archives
NOTE: see the comments for a more correct (than mine) view of this new product
Abra – the new toy from the Checkpoint
Posted in Checkpoint NG/NGX.
– March 3, 2010
2 Responses
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Abra uses a virtualization engine that virtualizes the host OS that it’s used on. It doesn’t have the entire OS on the stick. This way no additional OS licensing is needed. So from that perspective its very different from VMWare. The device is a SanDisk Enterprise Cruzer device with built in HW encryption so the encryption is transparent to the end user. Its centrally managed from SmartDashboard where for example Application Control can be configured so the Abra environment can be tightly controlled and users can’t execute whatever applications they want.
It’s individual components are not new, desktop virtualization, remote access solution and plug-and-play encrypted USB. But as a combination put together as one product it’s pretty unique.
Thanks Jonas,
looks interesting , I am trying to get hold of the stick as well, will
update in the blog as soon as I have it.
Yuri.