Ross Brown, VP Worldwide Channels & Operations for Citrix, said there is no channel conflict because Net6 has a nascent channel strategy. He said Citrix will authorize its channel partners and resellers to sell Net6's Access Gateway in the near future. "Net6's go to market strategy now is largely an OEM play and their attraction is the Citrix channel,'" Brown said. "We will make the product available to our channel players."
Citrix said Net6's SSL Access Gateway will be sold as standalone access solution that complements the SmoothRoaming feature in the company's existing MetaFrame Access Suite and the upcoming SmartAccess feature due in the MetaFrame Access 4 Suite. MetaFrame Access Suite is due to ship in April, several partners said.
Net6's SSL Access Gateway, a hybrid VPN and alternative to IPSec and traditional SSL VPNs, provides secure access to applications from any device to any IT resource. Citrix's MetaFrame Secure Access Manager (MSAM) provides access to Citrix hosted applications only. Brown said Citrix will integrate the gateway with the company's MSAM and other access technologies but those decisions ahve not been finalized.
Net6's appliance combines IPSec and SSL VPN technology to enable secure remote tunneling from any environment. Many customers choose SSL VPN appliances over the Citrix offering because it gives them access to all network resources, partners note.
"MSAM can't give you that today because it only provides access to applications and not the network,' said Mitch Northcutt, president of RapidApp, Chicago. "This gets Citrix over that hurdle, the objections that some people had about MSAM."
Other consultants say the deal will expand opportunities for partners of both companies. Net6's other key products, Application Gateway and Voice Office Application Suite, will provide application access to IP telephones and mobile devices from leading IP PBX vendors including Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, Nortel and Siemens. The Voice Office product allows customers to deliver applications to the screens and speakers of IP telephones.
Subsea cable alternatives can provide a level of comfort for those concerned about disruptions. Realistically, they will continue to play a small, but critical role in the short term.
Maintaining existing network infrastructures often incurs huge technical debt before newer technologies are adopted over time.
Amid ongoing regional uncertainties, telecom infrastructure in the Middle East has expand to include terrestrial low-latency network infrastructure, which offers resilience and agility in navigating political complexities without relying solely on undersea networks.
