Gartner labels Microsoft an SSL VPN 'Visionary'

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 04 January 2007 02:22

Opinion and Analysis

Microsoft has issued a press release boasting of its ranking by Gartner in the 'Visionaries' sector of Gartner's latest 'Magic Quadrant' report on secure sockets layer virtual private network (SSL VPN) vendors, but it's rather misleading.

Gartner produces Magic Quadrant reports on specific technologies frequently. This one is particularly interesting because Microsoft is a new player in the SSL VPN market and whenever the giant ventures into new territory incumbents should start to worry.

The SSL VPN Magic Quadrant report evaluates Microsoft's Intelligent Application Gateway (IAG) - obtained through the acquisition of Whale Communications in July 2006 - and Microsoft's Internet Security and Acceleration Server (ISA Server), which is integrated with the IAG to provide a single, consolidated appliance for network perimeter defence, remote access, endpoint security and application-layer protection. More details at http://www.microsoft.com/whale.

Under a headline: "Microsoft in Visionaries Quadrant in 3Q06 SSL VPN Magic Quadrant" Microsoft's press release says: "Evaluation of Microsoft Intelligent Application Gateway Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute."

Which is absolutely true. Those are the criteria Gartner uses when deciding in which Quadrant to place a vendor. However inclusion in the 'Visionaries' quadrant does not indicate a stellar performance against these criteria.