Additional to being positioned by Gartner in the "visionary" quadrant of the "Magic Quadrant for SSL VPN, 3Q05" report, Citrix has also moved into the number one market share position for SSL VPN gateways, according to Infonetics Research.
Gartner`s vice-president, John Girard, evaluated 14 SSL VPN vendors based on their ability to execute and the completeness of their vision. According to 2005 criteria, Gartner focused on seven areas within the parameters of vision and execution: market understanding, product strategy, innovation, overall viability, marketing execution, sales execution/pricing and customer experience.
According to Gartner, vendors positioned in the "visionaries" quadrant demonstrate a clear understanding of where the market is headed and how they intend to capitalise on market trends. Visionaries invest in the bleeding edge features that will be significant to the next generation of products and give buyers early access to improved security and management.
"We believe that being positioned in the SSL VPN visionary quadrant is a testament to the core capabilities of Citrix and recognition of the strategic market position that Citrix is taking in this high growth market," said Chris Norton, country manager for Citrix in South Africa.
Citrix expanded its focus on the Secure Sockets Layer Virtual Private Networks (SSL VPN) market with the acquisition of Net6 in December 2004 and launched the Citrix Access Gateway SSL VPN to more than 5 000 channel partners in January 2005. Since then there has been rapid channel and customer adoption as the product has been rolled through the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and Africa.
In April 2005, the company included Access Gateway into the Citrix Access Suite, together with Citrix Presentation Server and Password Manager. This has created a market leading solution, well-suited to the experience of the Citrix reseller channel.
"We have just begun tracking Citrix in the report; however, the company is taking innovative and aggressive steps to build a large imprint in the SSL VPN market, "said Jeff Wilson, a principal analyst for VPNs and Security at Infonetics Research Inc.
"With its large installed customer base and long history in the access business, we expect Citrix to become a strong player in this market, one that continues to grow significantly as more customers move from using SSL VPN for simple remote access to using them to secure access for all users regardless of location."
"The number one market position demonstrates the unique customer value proposition and the strong capabilities of Citrix`s channel partners in meeting customer demand SSL VPN solutions in a variety of market segments," concludes Norton.
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Citrix Access Gateway is a universal SSL VPN appliance that provides a secure, always-on, single point-of-access to all protocols and applications, including multimedia and voice over IP applications. The Advanced Access Control option extends access to more devices and users, and controls who accesses company information and what actions they can do with it - access becomes like a dimmer switch, where the right level of access can be dialled and configured for any access scenario. Access Gateway delivers the best access experience for everyone: secure access to corporate data for the business, easy access for users, and simple administration and low costs for access for IT.
The Magic Quadrant
The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 8 December 2005 by Gartner, Inc and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner`s analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc (Nasdaq:CTXS) is the global leader and most trusted name in on-demand access. More than 160 000 organisations around the world use the Citrix Access Platform to provide the best possible access experience to any application for any user. Citrix customers include 100% of the Fortune 100 companies and 98% of the Fortune Global 500, as well as hundreds of thousands of small businesses and individuals. Citrix has approximately 6 200 channel and alliance partners in more than 100 countries. Citrix annual revenues in 2004 were $741 million. Learn more at www.citrix.com.
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