Neoteris Unveils The Meeting Series Product Family, Extending The Instant Virtual Extranet Platform With Secure Online Meeting Appliances
SSL Access Pioneer Introduces Industry’s First Appliances that Increase Security and Lower Cost of User-to-User Collaboration
SAN FRANCISCO – July 7, 2003 – Neoteris, Inc., the leading Application Security Gateway vendor, today announced a new product family, the Neoteris Meeting Series*, offering the industry’s first hardened appliance for secure, cost-effective online meetings. The Neoteris Meeting Series family of appliances, an extension of the award-winning Instant Virtual Extranet (IVE) platform, enables enterprises to instantly and securely provision cross-enterprise online meetings and user-to-user collaboration without the security tradeoffs and costs of hosted services or software-based extranet deployments. Today’s announcement is being made at the Burton Group Catalyst Conference 2003 in San Francisco, where Neoteris will showcase the first public demonstration of the Meeting Series this week.
“Neoteris was an early and aggressive entrant in creating appliances to utilize the SSL protocol for secure remote access in 2001, and the company had the vision to realize that its unique Instant Virtual Extranet technology could be applied to secure other forms of communication, solving a wider variety of enterprise access and communication needs,” said Dave Kosiur, senior Burton Group analyst. “Neoteris is taking a novel approach to an existing market, which shows a lot of potential. This new offering can enable highly secure, real-time collaboration without recurring fees. This is a natural progression for the company as it continues to mature, and it is welcome news for enterprises that use online meeting services.”
The Meeting Series extends the appliance-based approach typically associated with security gateways to effectively solve the problems commonly associated with real-time collaboration. Traditional collaboration service providers expose data to a third party, expose the corporate network to any breach of the shared systems – including servers at the provider’s location and users’ PCs – and can enable unauthorized disclosures of confidential information with little or no audit trail. Additionally, while hosted service providers offer cost savings over face-to-face meetings that involve significant travel costs, they still prove expensive due to the recurring monthly fee structure. Custom software deployments, such as collaboration extranets, are difficult to implement and expensive to secure and manage over time. Neoteris remedies these issues by bringing the cost-effective security of the IVE platform to online meetings. By moving from hosted services or software deployments to the Neoteris Meeting Series product family, enterprises reduce monthly costs while increasing security and reducing their Internet-facing risk profile.
“We have been impressed with the Neoteris Access Series* product quality, the level of service we have received, and how much money we have saved on deployment and maintenance of secure access, so when we heard about the new Meeting Series we were intrigued,” said Leonard Martin, Vice President, Information Services at Lancaster General. “The new Meeting Series is impressive and has the potential for cost savings and increasing our overall security posture over the traditional hosted service we currently use. We see important applications for our Meeting product, such as the secure sharing of private patient results among consulting physicians, and today we have no way to block users from sharing their desktops or unauthorized data. We are very pleased with our Access Series, and look forward to the Meeting Series securing our online meetings and supporting real-time collaboration for our team and our network of healthcare partners.”
The Meeting Series uses the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol available in all Web browsers to secure online meetings instantly, with no custom software configuration or new server deployments. Group-based authentication and authorization are standard and administrators receive detailed, event-driven logs. Users can collaborate via any Web browser, without requiring the deployment of new desktop clients, while receiving flexibility and productivity enhancements.
Because all Neoteris products share the same underlying IVE technology platform, including features such as application-layer security, high-availability, and performance scalability, Neoteris easily extends its reach beyond secure remote access into adjacent areas. The Meeting Series appliances, the first example of this extension, can also be combined with the award-winning Neoteris Access Series appliances to support project collaboration and document management applications. Together with the Access Series product family, Meeting Series products can enable instant secure collaborative meetings as well as instant secure access to project portals and document management systems, providing a complete solution for real-time access to enterprise resources and online meetings in a single environment.
“The Meeting Series is an exciting step forward for Neoteris and for the range of capabilities supported by SSL-based security appliances,” said Neoteris President and CEO Krishna “Kittu” Kolluri. “Recognized by many analysts as the leader in the SSL VPN and Application Security Gateway product categories, we are in a position to continue to push the envelope forward, not only with continued development of our Access Series product lines, but also by realizing the potential of our IVE platform in new business applications. The Meeting Series is the natural progression and extension of the IVE platform, and it holds true to our primary value proposition for enterprises – to increase security while decreasing costs of communications. We are very excited to be the first to bring this new breed of product to market, as well as to announce our continued investment in the IVE platform to further broaden our addressable markets.
“Neoteris cost-effectively enables secure user-to-machine communications with our Access Series product family, and now secures user-to-user communications through the Neoteris Meeting Series product family,” added Kolluri. “This new offering will round out our security platform and will allow businesses to integrate and communicate more effectively with external constituencies without the security challenges, network complexity, scalability, and cost worries of traditional technology options. This is an exciting time for Neoteris and our customers, and an exciting time for the industry as a whole.”
Availability and Pricing
The Neoteris Meeting Series functionality is available later this month as a software upgrade to the Neoteris Access Series product family, with prices for the Secure Meeting Upgrade starting at $1,995. Dedicated Meeting Series appliances will be available in Q4 FY03 with prices starting at $14,995.
The Neoteris Meeting Series Product Family
The Neoteris Meeting Series is the industry’s first secure cross-enterprise meeting appliance. Built upon the award-winning Neoteris IVE platform, the Meeting Series enables enterprises to leverage their IT infrastructure to deploy secure, real-time collaboration at a fraction of the cost of alternative solutions. The Meeting Series does not require software deployments or a custom extranet, and it instantly secures cross-enterprise online meetings, protecting enterprises from data exposure, AAA policy violations, system compromises, and network penetration, all while reducing the cost of cross-enterprise collaboration.
The Neoteris IVE Platform
Neoteris introduced a novel category of Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)-based secure access appliances built upon the highly secure Instant Virtual Extranet (IVE) platform in 2001. The original product family, the Neoteris Access Series, allows IT security administrators to deliver remote application access to external constituencies (employees and partners) with no more than a standard Web browser. As a result, users are no longer constrained to use specific machines or to work from designated locations; they can work from anywhere that they can access an Internet connection and a Web browser. Neoteris has now extended the capabilities of the robust IVE platform beyond remote access by delivering a new product family that enables instant, secure online meetings. The Neoteris Meeting Series leverages the IVE platform’s robust security capabilities, high-availability options, and performance scalability features to meet the most demanding enterprise needs.
About Neoteris
Neoteris, Inc. is the market leader in the Application Security Gateway and SSL VPN product categories. With its Instant Virtual Extranet platform, Neoteris delivers innovative, best-of-breed security products, including the award-winning Neoteris Access Series and the Neoteris Meeting Series security appliances. Founded in May 2000, Neoteris is a privately held company backed by Jim Clark, The Barksdale Group, New Enterprise Associates, Battery Ventures, and individual investors. The company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif., and has international offices in London, Frankfurt, and Hyderabad, India. Go to