* AEP rolls out SGA-T
AEP Networks is continuing along its roadmap to roll out SSL VPN gear for companies looking to provide remote access just to particular, limited types of applications.
The company’s new SGA-T supports access to any Windows application via a Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and is the third in the company’s line of SGA appliances. The T in SGA-T stands for tunnel, meaning an agent is downloaded to the remote machine to create a Layer 2 connection to corporate resources. The other two SGA models are SGA-M, which supports access to Microsoft Outlook Web Access, and SGA-C, which secures access to Citrix servers.
The reasoning behind these devices is that customers are faced with the need to supply access to certain key applications and they don’t need broader access support that other vendors’ gear supplies or the same access support that AEP’s other gear provides. The tradeoff is price.
SGA-T’s base price is $2,500, while a Juniper SSL VPN box that supports virtually all types of traffic costs $4,000 with a 10-user license.
For customers wanting a full-blown SSL VPN box that supports most applications, AEP is introducing NSP A Class, built on the SGA hardware but fitted out with more memory. The device itself costs $2,500, and the price goes up to add on licenses for concurrent users and software to provide varying levels of access. For example, a 10-user license for an NSP A Class that accesses applications via port forwarding costs an extra $1,700.
In both cases, the company seems to be making a play for customers that are relatively small businesses where cost is a major factor, and those are the companies that will be looking at these boxes.
The new gear is scheduled to be announced next week at Interop and will available in June.
