Aventail signs up Almasa as national distributor

Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN) has signed up Almasa
as its national distributor for the country. Almasa Network Services is also
Aventail's distributor in the Gulf region and the Indian tie up is an
extension of the existing alliance.

"We appointed Almasa as we wanted a company with local footprint to push
our products. We practice the philosophy of selective and strategic partnerships
and we wanted a distributor who be committed rather than lose focus with several
other brands in his kitty," said Micheal Ang, VP APac, Aventail.

MICHEAL ANG Once the government gets its infrastructure in place, SSL VPN technology would really take off in the country

Also, since Almasa has been managing the vendor's business in the Gulf, it
has the technical know-how about the products, which it can easily transfer to
its team in India as well, especially in post-sales support. While partners will
offer elementary support, Almasa will provide the next level of support. If the
problem persists, it will then be escalated to Aventail, which has set up an
R&D team in Bangalore to assist in post-sales support.

Aventail already has signed up 12 solution providers in the country,
including HCL Comnet. Now it plans to have two partners who have a national
presence, in each region.

The channel is grouped into two categories: Premium Partners and Select
Partners. The former is the entry-level group comprising new partners who will
scale their Aventail business to get into the Select Partner category.

While conceding that India is lagging behind in the adoption of SSL VPN,
Micheal said that once the government gets its infrastructure in place, this
technology would really take off in the country. "But with the increasing
awareness of IT and enterprises realizing the value technology can bring to
their business, it won't be long before SSL VPN finds wider acceptance,"
he predicted.

Though enterprises are increasingly looking at cutting IT costs, they are
unwilling to compromise on its benefits. Most are contemplating providing an
agile solution that enables the mobile workforce to hook up to the Intranet from
anywhere.

VINITA BHATIA