9.4 WebSphere Everyplace Access and its components

WebSphere Everyplace Access provides the core components to create a Pervasive Portal solution. Considering that it is composed of several different products and based on WebSphere Application Server, the product architecture is mostly based on a centralized security solution, facilitating the management and development of new components. Refer to 5.2, "Products" on page 60 for more information about the WebSphere Everyplace Access components.

The authentication and Single Sign-On features are provided by WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere Portal Server and Tivoli Access Manager. Refer to 9.5.1, "Tivoli Access Manager and Single Sign-On" on page 210 to obtain more information about authentication and Single Sign-On methods .

In order to protect data transferred between servers and mobile clients , security must be enabled on both the HTTP server, the application server, and the mobile client.

WebSphere Everyplace Access supports Single Sign-On using LTPA (Lightweight Third Party Authentication) which is part of WebSphere. It also supports SSL for securing the connections and communication for the HTTP protocol.

Note	WebSphere Edge Server is not part of WebSphere Everyplace Access V4.2; it is a separate IBM product.

Everyplace Client

Everyplace Client includes an authentication proxy that handles translations between the client and a secure server. This proxy is transparent to the servers, therefore each client component must be configured to use the proxy. The proxy then acts as an agent between the client and servers, providing the necessary authentication information to the server.

Device Manager

In order to provide encryption between the Device Manager and the mobile devices, these are the available solutions:

Palm OS does not supply any SSL functions, so the device agent provides the elements needed to implement secure connections. It implements 128-bit encryption as well as data integrity checking of communications between the device agent and the plug-in.
Device Manager relies on the SSL features supplied with Microsoft Windows CE. It implements 128-bit encryption of communications between the device agent and the plug-in.

Everyplace Synchronization Server

The Synchronization Server uses WebSphere Application Server basic authentication for user authentication. It also supports MD5 and basic authentication at the SyncML layer and performs user authentication before permitting access to back-end databases.

The Lotus Domino Adapter and Microsoft Exchange Adapter require authentication to synchronize with the back-end databases. For caching back-end servers, the adapters need write, edit, create and delete authority in order to write updated PIM data to the back-end servers. Adapter authentication is configured using the Lotus Domino and Microsoft Exchange Adapter portlets.