Aspelle Listed in SSL VPN Market Visionary Quadrant by Gartner, Inc.; Company Follows Aspelle Everywhere 3.0 Product Launch with Strong Showing in Magic Quadrant.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2003

Aspelle, the SSL VPN software leader, today announced it was listed in the "visionary" quadrant in the newly released SSL VPN 1H03 Magic Quadrant from Gartner, Inc. The Gartner Research report, which evaluated 14 vendors based on ability to execute and completeness of vision, noted that popular awareness of SSL VPNs surged at the end of 2002.

The report follows closely on the heals of Aspelle's introduction of Aspelle Everywhere(TM) 3.0, the latest version of its award-winning software platform. Aspelle Everywhere is the only SSL VPN solution that provides a powerful three-tier security model and completely centralized management, allowing it to seamlessly integrate with existing infrastructure. The software delivers outstanding scalability and unparalleled ease-of-use, as well as the most flexible and comprehensive access capabilities in the industry.

"Enterprises that want easier and more flexible ways to deploy secure remote access should consider SSL VPNs for new investments, and as upgrades for legacy VPNs," according to the report, prepared by John Girard, vice president and research director at Gartner, Inc. "Many enterprises implement complete VPNs where simpler, easier, less expensive private access could be created by using SSL-based solutions."

The report lists Aspelle in the visionary quadrant, placing the company far ahead of all other SSL VPN software vendors. The report highlights Aspelle Everywhere's ability to dynamically move users between gateways in multiple locations for load balancing, equipment failures and disaster backup routing. Moreover, it comments on Aspelle Everywhere's concurrent user pricing, which allows buyers to use the software to create as many servers as buyers want, at no additional charge.

The bottom line, according to the report: the simplicity and portability of SSL VPNs can lower the cost to implement remote-user VPNs for corporate workstations, as well as access from non-corporate systems such as personal computers. Enterprises should expect immediate value from investments in SSL VPNs in the form of easier deployment and support.

"Gartner's view of the market is very accurate, and we're pleased that we've been able to take such a strong position in this industry less than nine months after launching our first product," commented Mark Turner, CEO at Aspelle. "The SSL VPN market is growing rapidly, and as the need for a flexible and highly secure offering becomes apparent, we'll be in a position to capitalize on our superior software platform to quickly take the market lead."

Aspelle Everywhere is the only SSL VPN solution capable of providing flexible access to all corporate applications, including Web, Unix, Windows and legacy systems, without compromising security or manageability. Integrating easily into existing infrastructure, Aspelle Everywhere doesn't require client-side software, a dedicated device, system re-architecture, application re-engineering or significant hardware expenditure. Serving as a non-disruptive "buffer" between existing infrastructure and the Internet, Aspelle Everywhere provides a single passageway for the delivery of applications to users. This minimizes impact on infrastructure and maximizes a company's previous technology investments, including existing access solutions such as dial-up systems or traditional VPNs.

Secure, Centralized Management

Offering the most secure, end-to-end management of any SSL VPN in the industry, Aspelle Everywhere enables businesses to dramatically reduce administrative overhead and obtain unprecedented visibility into business operations. Aspelle Everywhere's unique, centralized management capabilities encompass all users and applications, offering absolute control over user access and providing the highest granularity of security. Aspelle Everywhere also enables increasingly context sensitive access provisioning based on user, location, device and time. As a result, it can be used for comprehensive application auditing, reporting, monitoring and billing, allowing enterprises to continually evaluate and optimize their business processes.

Unparalleled Flexibility and Access Capabilities

No other solution on the market can compete with the scope of access Aspelle Everywhere delivers. Aspelle Everywhere features a unique "terminating" and "repeating" capability that facilitates traversal through even the most complex tiered firewall environments at any off-site location. As a result, Aspelle Everywhere ensures that authorized users have access to the applications they need, whenever and wherever they need them.

Moreover, Aspelle Everywhere supports both encrypted and unencrypted SOCKS, eliminating the need for clients to double encrypt if they already use an encrypted connection. Support for application proxy servers is included through the use of native HTTP and HTTPS protocols, allowing communication through stateful inspection of firewalls and proxies, increasing the locations from where Aspelle Everywhere can be accessed.

Enterprise-Class Security

Aspelle Everywhere also features a unique, three-tier security model to ensure the most stringent levels of security. All corporate data is 128-bit encrypted, with authentication, authorization and access controlled separately. Applications remain inside the enterprise at all times, and all information is transferred between the enterprise and users over ports 80 or 443. As a result, additional ports don't have to be exposed on the Internet-facing firewall.

For added security, Aspelle Everywhere supports three types of session ticket, including browser-based certificates, browser-based cookies and machine-based certificates. It can also support single sign-on in two ways, either storing encrypted user credentials within Active Directory or through user impersonation for Kerberos applications, delivering the appropriate Active Directory token to the impersonator and authenticating the user to a resource. And with support for NTLM authentication, organizations have the option to provide a single account for users to gain both internal and external access.

Gartner defines visionaries as companies that have a clear vision of market direction and are focused on preparing for that, while they improve in terms of optimizing service delivery.

About Aspelle

Aspelle is the SSL VPN software leader. The company's award-winning platform, Aspelle Everywhere, is unmatched by any other SSL VPN solution in the industry in terms of flexibility, security and manageability. Aspelle Everywhere is ideal for companies who want to offer users secure, client-less access to all corporate applications, without the limitations and expense associated with other access technologies. Offering a powerful three-tier security model and centralized management, as well as the market's most advanced reporting features, Aspelle Everywhere integrates seamlessly into existing infrastructure, delivering the highest possible impact on ROI. For more information on Aspelle or Aspelle Everywhere, please visit www.aspelle.com.

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted April 2003 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission, which permission should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is Gartner, Inc.'s opinion and is an analytical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It measures vendors against Gartner defined criteria for a marketplace. The positioning of vendors within a Magic Quadrant is based on the complex interplay of many factors. Gartner does not advise enterprises to select only those firms in the "Leaders" quadrant. In some situations, firms in the Visionary, Challenger, or Niche Player quadrants may be the right matches for an enterprise's requirements. Well-informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than a Magic Quadrant. Gartner research is intended to be one of many information sources including other published information and direct analyst interaction. Gartner, Inc. expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, of fitness of this research for a particular purpose.

Aspelle Everywhere is a registered trademark of Aspelle Ltd.