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AT&T launches VPN service based on SSL

Posted on: Wednesday, 12 March 2003, 06:00 CST

AT&T launches VPN service based on SSL

Source: Computerworld

AT&T CORP. today plans to join forces with Aventail Corp. by announcing a deal to resell that company's new Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) remote-access devices as part of a managed virtual private network (VPN) service.

AT&T said it will charge customers a monthly fee for the SSL VPN service and put the tab on one bill along with its other network services and connection costs. Seattlebased Aventail will install and service its rack-mountable EX-1500 appliance, which is designed to eliminate the need for end users to install remote-access client software on laptop PCs and other mobile computing devices.

The reseller agreement made sense partly because the two companies share many global customer accounts, said John Sullivan, extranet product manager at AT&T. Sullivan wouldn't divulge the pricing for the new VPN service, which is due to be rolled out as early as next month. Aventail set a starting price of $20,000 on the EX1500 when the SSL-based appliance was announced in January [QuickLink 35527].

Aventail currently offers its own SSL VPN managed service and will continue to do so. But Sullivan said the sales forces of both companies will be able to sell AT&T's version of the managed service, with AT&T acting as the first point of contact for users.

Weighing Options

New York-based Deloitte Consulting has used Aventail's SSL VPN service for the past two years to manage remote access to corporate data and e-mail systems for 15,000 workers worldwide, said CIO Larry Quinlan. Currently, the consulting firm relies mainly on WorldCom Inc. to provide remote-access network services.

The WorldCom deal, valued in the millions of dollars annually, will be re-evaluated within the next 12 months, Quinlan said. Deloitte officials "would like more integration between remote- access lines and the VPN," he said. But if they considered the joint AT&T/Aventail offering, "we would insist on some cost savings" compared with buying separate services, Quinlan added.

AT&T is already the market leader in providing VPN services that support the IPsec security protocol, according to Framingham, Mass.- based IDC. Unlike SSL, IPsec requires the loading of client software on end-user devices.

Sullivan said AT&T will continue to support IPsec in addition to offering the new SSL VPN service. There's "very little overlap" between the users of the two technologies, he said.

Although SSL VPNs are increasing in popularity among corporate users, the demand for IPsec VPN services should continue to show some growth in installations because that protocol offers stronger security algorithms than SSL does, said John Girard, an analyst at Gartner Inc. in Stamford, Conn.

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