Lucent Technologies Inc. Monday launched
a program to provide resellers and enterprise customers virtual private
network application and infrastructure solutions.
Spearheaded by Lucent, the Virtual Private Network Alliance
features a host of vendors in technology, professional service and Internet
service provider arenas. Standouts from these sectors who joined the
alliance include Sun Microsystems Inc.,
Baker
Communications and UUNET.
The stategic alliance is aimed at resellers and enterprise customers who
need a complete VPN solution — VPN-capable routers for offices, a
VPN/firewall, integrated VPN client support and centralized security
management for the network.
Through all of this, Lucent has pledged to offer infrastructure and
application vendors solutions that can complement Lucent’s secure VPN
portfolio. The portfolio, which includes Lucent’s VPN Firewall Brick, the
Lucent IPSec client and Lucent Security Management Server, as well as the
Access Point multiservice access routers and the family of Pipeline and
SuperPipe access routers, has built-in Application Programming Interfaces
that allow technology partners to quickly make their products work with the
Secure VPN portfolio.
Ron Silver, senior marketing manager for the VPNA in Lucent’s Edge Access
Systems/WAN VPN Group, said the play would give clientele “a one-stop shop
for buying all of their VPN infrastructure and application products plus a
full suite of professional services and Internet access services.”
The VPNA’s price scale is as follows: a typical enterprise solution with 300
employees at the central office and 10 remote offices,
would cost from $10,000 to $15,000 to fully integrate multiple VPN Firewall
Bricks and a Security Management Server; a mid-sized business solution with
50 to 300 employees at a central location, and from one to 10 remote offices
is $5,000 to $10,000; a typical branch office solution with not more than 25
employees is $3,000 to $5,000.
VPNA solutions and services are available now in the U.S., Canada and Europe
and worldwide coverage is planned later this year.
By the end of September, Lucent said it will spin off its enterprise
communications systems, business cabling and LAN-based data networking
businesses into a separate company focused on delivering next-generation
communications networks for enterprises.
“Cooperation between the SunTone certification and branding program and VPNA
enables us to move forward aggressively in meeting our common goals of
bringing reliable, scalable and secure systems delivery to the Internet,”
said Tim Dwyer, vice president of marketing for the Network Service Provider
Division. “Sun servers continue to be the leading platform for VPNA members
to deliver cutting edge security products to service providers.”
