Gartner labels Microsoft an SSL VPN 'Visionary'

Stuart Corner
Thursday, 04 January 2007 02:22

Opinion and Analysis

Another company, Aventail a dedicated SSL VPN supplier, was ranked in the 'Leaders' quadrant and its press release mirrored that from Microsoft, being subtitled "Evaluation Based on Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute". It quoted the Magic Quadrant report stating that: "Leaders are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction, and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market."

The Microsoft press release also says of the Gartner Magic Quadrant that "The Magic Quadrant considers which vendors will likely dominate sales and influence technology directions through 2007, as well as which vendors are most visible among clients, generate the greatest number of requests for information and contract review, and account for the most new and ongoing installations in Gartner's client base."

However again these remarks apply to the goals of the Magic Quadrant methodology as a whole, not just to those companies in the Visionaries quadrant.

Unfortunately I don't have access to the Gartner SSL Magic Quadrant report but I do have a recent on one on another technology which sets out in fairly generic terms Gartner's definition of the various sectors of the Magic Quadrant.

As a Visionary, Gartner has determined that Microsoft is able to "address the whole market" and "exhibits strong market understanding and innovation." However visionaries in general "currently lack the ability to influence a large portion of the market, have yet to expand their sales and support capabilities globally, may have new products that are as yet unproven in substantial real-world implementations, or do not yet have the funding to execute with the same capabilities as a vendor in the Leaders quadrant."

Doubtless Microsoft would like to position itself in the "Leaders' Quadrant. According to Gartner "Leaders exhibit an ability to shape the market by introducing additional capabilities in their product offering and by raising awareness of the importance of these features. We expect a Leader to be growing market share, or the market as a whole, and to have solutions that resonate with an increasing number of enterprises."

To complete the picture, the other two quadrants are 'Challengers' and 'Niche Players'.

Gartner defines a challenger as follows. "A Challenger ...will be a follower from a product or innovation perspective, but will have demonstrated the ability to take its products into the market and then show the relevance of those products to a wide audience. Challengers may have less-complete feature sets than Leaders or they may have new products that are as yet unproven in substantial real-world implementations."

Niche Players "provide a more limited set of capabilities, and have not demonstrated enough vision or focused execution to warrant a stronger position in our analysis. They may be indicative of emerging requirements and features. Niche Players have yet to expand their sales and support capabilities globally, may have new products that are as yet unproven in substantial real-world implementations, or do not have the funding to execute with the same capabilities as a vendor in the Leaders quadrant."