Hands-on VPN

Having your production line behind your design office isn't the usual practice, but it works for satellite communications provider Cryptek Inc. of Sterling, Va.

DiamondSAT, the company's newest information security device, "had to be hand-crafted," and having a production room nearby was critical, said Dan Abraham, Cryptek's president and chief executive officer.

The device combines in a single box a government-certified virtual private network and secure encryption with Web and TCP/IP acceleration, and data compression that can provide security with up to 400 percent bandwidth improvement, Abraham said.