Inflightonline, provider of e-mail, Internet content and in-flight connectivity services, re- cently announced the availability of its Secure Access products for business aviation.
Proprietary technology developed by Inflightonline and partner Infowave Software allows the re-hosting of Internet sites on a server located on board the aircraft and provides secure access to corporate MS Exchange and Lotus Notes servers via low-bandwidth Inmarsat satcom. This virtual private network (VPN) technology allows executives on corporate aircraft not only to access the Internet while in the air, but also gives business travelers secure access to their own firewall-protected corporate e-mail accounts and Intranets rather than requiring users to transfer critical corporate information over a separate Web-based e-mail account.
“This is a major breakthrough in delivering a solution to business jet executives,” said Inflightonline president David Bruner. “We’re able to address the business executives’ need to remain connected to their offices, wherever they are, in a secure, reliable and affordable way that meets the security standards of their IT department.”
Inflightonline’s technology updates Internet information to accommodate the narrower band- width of air-to-ground communications networks. Instead of transmitting all data comprising a page when a Web site is refreshed, the Inflightonline ground server network (GSN) operations center maintains a mirror image of the aircraft server’s content and transmits only the difference between the live Internet site and the image that exists on the aircraft server. Inflightonline’s system allows more dynamic content to be stored than cached content and permits user interactivity such as e-commerce transactions. Very large updates, such as new editions of online magazines, are provided when a faster datalink is available.