vpn question - SSL vs IPSec

[Mike Starke]

Would anyone like to comment on this page/article?
http://www.aventail.com/ssl_vpn_benefits.asp

My only experience with VPN's is either using
OpenBSD w/IPsec for Lan-to-Lan connectivity, or
we had a Cisco Concentrator  and their client software
at my last place of employment for the road warriors.

I suppose my question would be this:
How does this (above link's hardware) differ from
connecting to something like an Apache server running
SSL?

Another question I have in my mind goes like this:
At my last employer's place I had a Citrix Server
with numerous "Published Applications", and access
to these pulblished apps via my debian/apache-ssl intranet
web sever. The other neat thing I had in this environment
was a NetApp filer. My web server NFS  mount'd the NetApp
(snapshots) departmental web directories. The departmental
'assignee' maintained their perspective "web site" via their
mapped out drives; and the web server just provided the
access/front end to all of the info.

Now I am wondering if I could create a comparable environment
using Linux. Wouldn't it be neat if one could log into
their Debian (big D fan :-) apache-ssl server, click on a link,
and have a GNU/Enterprise window open that is actually running
on my internal Debian/Application Server?

v/r
Mike