A flagship service among the thirty or so offered by the Restena Foundation, VPN is evolving. In particular, it is essential for accessing to the Intranet services of the Restena Foundation and/or the Ministry of Education/CGIE when the user is not connected to the National Research and Education Network (RESTENA network), on business trips, for example.

Integration into a proven European network

While the question of renewing the technical equipment configured to guarantee a secure high-performant VPN access to its network users, Restena opted for a European solution, proven and tailor-made to the needs of the research and education known as eduVPN. This tool, originally developed as part of the European GÉANT's projects, has since been offered as a federated service by the European GÉANT Association, which manages the pan-European research network of which Restena is a member. Its ambition is clear: provide to the research and education a secure remote access that respects privacy. Since it was launched, eduVPN attracted some twenty National Research and Education Networks (NRENs) across globe, Restena included as a participating NREN provider.

To meet eduVPN requirements, and so guarantee the research and education community in Luxembourg access to their institutes’ network or the Internet using an encrypted connection, Restena has adapted its technical infrastructure. In particular, it has deployed the eduVPN software on the servers dedicated to the research and education community, then integrated and configured the software at the heart of its infrastructure.

Thanks to these changes, users of Restena's VPN solution will benefit from additional features:

• simplified access to the VPN thanks to a new technical solution based on a client application called eduVPN;
• ability to configure the VPN on Android and Linux devices, in addition to Apple Mac/iOS and Windows.

Shared identification with other services

Beyond additional features, the service is open to new users. Until now only benefitting anyone owning a RESTENA user account, mainly Luxembourg teachers with an @education.lu mailbox, VPN access is extended to employees and students of the institutions affiliated to the authentication and access authorization service: eduID Luxembourg. This permits employees and students from research and education to authenticate for thousands of services available worldwide with only a single password.

In Luxembourg, Restena's ‘FileSender’ and ‘URL shortener’ services; respectively enabling the sharing of large files and the secure redirection of long URLs to short URLs while respecting its privacy and that of its visitors; already benefits from eduID Luxembourg authentication.

Users with an account at Restena and all researchers, teachers, employees and students of Luxembourg institutions using eduID Luxembourg can now use eduVPN. The following organisations are concerned:

• beneficiaries of the Identity and Access Management (IAM) system of the Centre de gestion informatique de l'éducation (CGIE),
• employees and students at the University of Luxembourg,
• employees and students at the Luxembourg School of Business (LSB),
• employees of the University of Luxembourg Competence Centre (ULCC),
• employees of the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER).