* AEP buys rival SSL VPN vendor
SSL VPN vendor AEP Networks is buying V-One, another SSL VPN vendor that has sold a lot of its gear to U.S. government agencies.
With the purchase, AEP gains not only customers but also V-One’s expertise in VPNs-over-satellites. Such are tricky links to configure because of the unavoidable half-second delay caused by waiting for signals to bounce off the satellites. V-One’s encryption technique leaves source and destination headers unencrypted so its gear can spoof TCP acknowledgements back to sending machines, preventing TCP from throttling down the connections in response to satellite delay.
The purchase fits in with plans stated by AEP earlier this year when it bought SSL VPN vendor Netilla, namely that it expected to make acquisitions to boost its customer base. And it set the U.S. government as one of its prime marketing targets.
AEP didn’t reveal the purchase price for V-One, but at the time it announced the Netilla deal, it also announced that it received $5 million in venture funding.
The bottom line of this move seems all stacked toward AEP’s business balance sheet. With VPNs becoming more and more of a commodity that is packed into other platforms such as routers and security switches, it will become harder and harder for vendors to survive as pure VPN providers. So it makes sense for the company to do whatever it can to survive.
The technology gains from the deal are secondary. AEP says it has to perform a comprehensive review before it decides how to integrate V-One gear into AEP product lines. To be fair, it takes awhile for businesses to turn technology gained from mergers into new products, but it’ s not clear yet that this deal means significant improvements for current AEP customers.
