Aventail expanding its canvas in India

Aventail, the US-based SSL VPN (Secure Sockets Layer "" Virtual Private Network) solutions provider, is expanding its canvas in India to be ready for the expected surge in broadband and Wi-Fi connectivity. The company, in addition to this, is also expanding its development work out of India.

SSL VPN consists of software and hardware boxes which together allow a person accessing a private network from a public network to create a connection as secure as a private network. The software is installed in individual laptops and also at the server of the private network through the box.

Chris Hopen, co-founder of Aventail and chief technology officer, who was in Bangalore recently said that with Internet becoming more and more ubiquitous here, the demand for such secure devices will increase.

His "perception is that India is an untapped SSL VPN market. Communication infrastructure has rapidly improved in the last five years due to the privatisation efforts by the government and investment. Also, IT and IT-enabled services have started realising that SSL VPN is the most cost-effective solution for their remote users."

Adoption is still low and Indian companies will eventually embrace SSL VPN, "But for now, it is an emerging market for this technology. As Internet access and the overall infrastructure further improves, I think we will see a lot of growth in SSL VPN utilisation," he noted.

Commenting on the development efforts in India, he said the majority of the Aventail India product engineering staff today focuses on new technology development in parallel with US Aventail engineerings.

"The India Centre will also conceptualise, design and develop a new product series, probably starting from next year. The goal for Aventail India has always been to be an extension of Aventail US," he noted.

He further added that the Centre was started with engineering staff who are vertically integrated into Aventail's global engineering efforts, allowing them to truly achieve a 24x7 development cycle.