Crossroads 2002 A-List Award Winners

Aventail Corporation
Seattle, WA

Aventail.Net
> Managed Secure Connectivity

CUSTOMERS AT WORK

The Internet is the common denominator for customers, partners, and employees working with large and midsize companies. Aventail’s customers are intent on managing the costs of providing secure access to their business over public networks. A leading health care organization, a business service firm, and a Fortune 500 process manufacturer were among the reference customers. Common strategic objectives included:

§ Increasing the scale of remote-access services

§ Reducing security risks

§ Reducing the cost of Internet access

WHY AVENTAIL?

Aventail’s services address the complex security and identity issues companies face when they provide stakeholders access to Web and client/server applications. The Aventail.Net managed services provide companies with a single infrastructure for enforcing security policies and managing identities. Companies can remotely make changes to their Aventail.Net configuration through Web-based administration tools. Via the Web, customer teams can monitor service levels and establish an enrollment process or provisioning workflow. Aventail.Net can be integrated within an existing corporate identity infrastructure such as LDAP directories and strong authentication technologies.

BUSINESS IMPACT

Near-term value: Companies can no longer afford to be their employees, business partners, and customer’s de facto ISP. Aventail’s customers are reducing their dialup costs dramatically. Aventail.Net allows them to deliver a more pervasive and secure Web-based service that users can access via their personal ISP. One company cut remote-access costs from $60 per employee per month to $20 per employee per month.

Enterprise innovation: Anywhere, anytime collaboration has become a way of life in the world’s largest businesses. When companies investigate the aggregate bandwidth costs and global online convenience, the public Internet infrastructure emerges as a compelling option. Aventail.Net allows companies to lay the foundation for a fully Web-based virtual workspace. Two health care customer organizations are opening up hospital applications so their physicians can provide more responsive patient care no matter where they are located.

Technology gains: IT teams value the short implementation cycle for the Aventail.Net service. At the same time, Aventail.Net provides first-level support and Web-based enrollment processes for end users. In contrast with the flat costs of leased dialup lines, companies can structure their contract with Aventail so that they only pay for the actual number of unique service users on a monthly basis.

SUCCESS FACTORS

Project strategy: Prospective customers must understand their security requirements ahead of time. For example, a Fortune 500 Aventail customer has started to demand that end users install personal firewalls on their home computers and use a specific authentication technology for their remote-access services.

Learning: For companies moving away from dialup lines, user education is a critical step in the migration process.

Resources: Setting policies and user profile requirements may vary on a line-of-business basis. Larger organizations should consider rolling out Aventail.Net in an iterative process that begins with an assessment of the specific needs of each target business.

Fit: Large and midsize companies should consider Aventail.Net as a means of securely tapping into the scale economies of the public Internet.

COMPANY INFO

Aventail Corporation is a private company with 230 employees.

206.215.1111
www.aventail.com
Published: January 2002