F5's FirePass controller leads the SSL VPN market in Japan.

F5 Networks, Inc. has announced that a recent study by global growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan ranks F5 Networks as the leader with 35.7% market share in Japan's SSL VPN space.

"F5 Networks has shown remarkably strong growth in the highly competitive Japanese market to become the market leader in the SSL VPN space within such a short period of time," said Jay Tan, Industry Analyst, ICT Practice at Frost & Sullivan. "Leveraging their position in the network and leading application traffic management solutions, F5 has had excellent acceptance in SSL VPN market with huge success in service providers and large enterprises."

2004 was a period of rapid growth in the SSL VPN market. According to the report, SSL VPN revenues "...grew at a phenomenal rate of 465% (in 2004). Major adopters of SSL VPN were the Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Manufacturing, Service Providers and Retail sectors. After the education period in 2003, SSL VPN solutions have already been accepted by Japanese end-users as a viable option to IPSec VPN for remote access."

Enterprises worldwide have increasingly turned to SSL VPNs due to their lower cost and easier management than IP Security (IPSec)-based solutions, which require installation of a VPN concentrator and client software on all employee PCs and laptops. In contrast, SSL VPNs provide easy, browser-based access to files and applications.

"Our product resonates with Japanese customers due to its broad enterprise-class functionality, award winning service, and world-class support," said Tim Goodwin, Vice-President of F5 Networks Japan K.K. "We've gained strong traction among service providers and enterprises largely due to the strong relationships we've forged with local distribution and channel partners."

The report is the latest study that proclaims F5 Networks as the market share leader in Japan's SSL VPN space. In September, the Fuji Chimera Research Institute reported that the FirePass product had leaped into the No. 1 position based on revenue and the number of units sold. The product has also gained honors from numerous industry publications. In January, the FirePass 4100 Controller was named a 'Hot Pick' by Information Security magazine, which also called FirePass the best remote access product it had ever reviewed.

FirePass Controller enables enterprises to provide secure remote access to network resources using any web-enabled device and over a range of access networks, regardless of location. With the FirePass platform, organizations benefit from superior performance and scalability, easy management, and the most advanced application security. The product also offers the industry's only open Application Programming Interface (API), Visual Policy Editor and Software Developer's Kit (SDK), plus a host of unique features and capabilities not found in competitive products. FirePass customers also benefit from complete business continuity by deploying the SSL VPN solution along with F5's global traffic management product.