Qld Emergency Services picks Aventail SSL VPN

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 09 November 2005 15:02

IT Industry - Deals

Queensland Emergency Services as chosen SSL technology from Aventail to secure remote access to its central systems for up to 7000 staff and 80,000 volunteers.

The system is based around Aventail's EX-1500 VPN appliance and Emergency Services has initially licensed access for up to 100 simultaneous users.

Paul Jose, manager information security for the Department of Emergency Services, said the Aventail solution had been selected after an extensive evaluation of it and two other SSL VPN solutions.

A major initial application is to provide access to online training resources, but with field staff being deployed overseas to assist in regional crises there was an increasing need to provide secure remote access over a wider range of access technologies and devices.

The system is being installed by systems integrator Loop Technologies, formerly the Australian arm of Multinational Kanbay which was the subject of a management buyout.

Aventail now claims more than two million end users with over 1000 customers worldwide. It is ranked number two in the SSL VPN appliance market by IDC and claims a 95 percent share of market for SSL VPN devices used to provide managed SSL VPN services.

The company has been focussed solely on SSL VPN since its formation in 1996 and claims to have spent more on SSL VPN development than any other company.

Aventail has just released a new version of its remote access platform, the Aventail ST claimed to provide secure remote access from any device over any access technology and to be able to adapt access according to the functional limitations of the device and its level of security.