SSL's ease of use often translates into big savings for companies using the technology for remote access. Frost & Sullivan, a market research firm, estimates that the average cost per user drops to between $60 (£32) and $220 when using an SSL remote access VPNs versus $150 to $300 per user when using an IPSec VPN.
"The total cost of ownership is much lower for SSL VPNS, because you don't have to pre-configure every PC," said Jason Wright, an analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "You also don't have all of the support issues to deal with."
Torre agrees. He said that the SSL VPNs are so easy to use that the company's support issues disappeared literally overnight when they started using SSL VPNs. Consequently, the SSL VPN hardware paid for itself in a matter of months.
"We still use Cisco [Systems' networking products] for site-to-site IPSec VPNs," he said. "But it's really a no-brainer to use SSL for remote access."
SSL's bright future
Financial and industry analysts are already projecting high growth in this market during the next year. Last week, Erik Suppiger, an analyst at Pacific Growth Equities, raised his earnings estimate for NetScreen, which completed its acquisition of SSL networking company Neoteris in November.
This week, he increased his expectations for networking gear maker F5 Networks, which announced its acquisition of SSL VPN company uRoam in July.
Industry analysts are also bullish on SSL VPN technology. According to Frost & Sullivan, the market for the technology grew 360 percent last year, with sales jumping from $20m in 2002 to $90m.
The market research firm expects that 2003 figure to more than double to $202m this year. And by 2006, it expects sales to exceed $500m.
But to put this growth into perspective, IPsec VPNs still outpace SSL VPNs in terms of revenue. Frost & Sullivan estimates that worldwide sales for IPsec VPN products reached $1.8bn in 2002 and is likely to total $2.4bn in 2003.
