For Kim Woods Only 6-8 part 2 - Additional requested information

It{G LmE ING Life (formerlv NN Financial) is a leading provider of life insurance products incanada. The .o'nol.ry is based r" brt.ri"

""0 opout", ,;;;; th*, regionar offices.over 2000 brokeraae p.rr*tr -"tr."tTtr"foau.ts [BRUN99,IBMO0J. In 1997 mostof the brokers retJo bn,fax, phone,-"r] i"rr.r services to request poricy informa_tion' Response times courd someti-", u" t"asured i' rrou.s. rt e company did havea 56-kbps frame reray wide area n"t*o.t, uu, ,t u, onry

"onn".tJ tn" ont*io h"ad_quarters to 70 managing general agent oifices^(rigqr'rii.il. rrr-.ivrr.,'s in ontarioconverted the frame reray requesL to sNa ri"ri rcpip'u"i-rourro them to thecorporate mainframe in Connecticut. In December of 1997,ING decided it had to reduce response times to remaincompetitive and attract new brokers. rrr" .o.p"ny wanted a tost_effective solutionthat could provide its brokers rutru"""., tolainframe data and scale to accommo-date newpartners.ING investigated""i""Jirg the existing frame reray network and

Logon and request Reply from mainframe

Redundant fractional T-ls

Mailframe (Norwich, CT)

ING Life headquarters (Don Mills, Ontario)

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Figure III.I ING Life Network before Using Internet

223

F' 221 c.\s]- .i I I'i .., .1 I;\(l i ii l. Logon and request

Session established with mainframe Reply with mainframe data

Redundant fractional T-1s

Mainframe (Nomich, CT)

Broker with Web browser

Figuy* tr{i-f ING Life Network with Extranet

estimated the cost at a prohibitive $3.3 million. Instead, the company decided to build an exfanet and offer a Web-to-host seffice that would allow partners to ac- cess mainframe data directly via the Internet. ING estimated the annual cost of ex- tranet services for 2000 brokers at $70,000. The annual cost of maintaining the existing WAN for 70 brokers was $750,000.

Besides reducing maintenance costs, the Web-to-host solution offered other benefits. The client software installed automatically as a browser applet, thereby re- ducing administrative costs. Also, using a browser as an interface meant that brokers were no longer tied to a specific workstation or PC.

The new solution would include two NT servers, a new SNA gateway (to trans- late between SNA and IP), and a Cisco Pix firewall connected to the Internet via a leased T-1 line (Figure III.2). The NT servers would run Lotus Notes, IBM Host on Demand (Web-to-host software), and Web server software. Because this service would send private data over the public Internet, security was a concern. The Pix firewall would prevent unauthorized access to the data. In addition, the Web-to-host software used an SSL (secure sockets layer) connection (described in Chapter 1B). Before bringing the service on line,ING had security consultants probe the system for vulnerabilities.

By July of 1999, ING had 350 brokers connected to the extranet and plans to connect the remaining brokers by sometime in 2000. To use the new service, brokers connect to the Internet using dial-up and point their browser at the Web server. The Host on Demand client loads automatically as a browser applet.The applet provides

TN3270 e the corpo Response

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ING Life headquarters (Don Mills, Ontario)

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ING LIFhI 225

TN3270 emulation services. After the applet has loaded, the broker can access the corporate mainframe as if he is using a directly connected TN3270 terminal. Response times for extranet requests are less than one minute.

Discussion Questions 1. What are the probable difficulties and risk associated with using public infrastructure,

such as the Internet, as part of a private business solution? 2' Discuss the precautions taken by ING to en$ure security. Were the measures ade-

quate?

3. Comment on the extranet topology.Are there any potential bottlenecks?