Targeting the mid-market, the NetScreen 25, 50, 204, 208 and 500 model appliances will now be released in two flavors – as they do today, and as baseline appliances, with lower price tags and a reduced feature set.
We already have a substantial user base in medium enterprises, so this is not completely new for us, said Steve Pataky, NetScreen’s global business manager for the medium enterprise. [But] we think there is some substantial growth we can achieve there.
The baseline boxes will have session capacity reduced by half, reduced VPN tunnel capacity, lower networking protocol support, limited high availability options, and fewer or no virtual LAN support.
None of the new devices will support Deep Inspection, the brand for NetScreen’s application-level firewall filtering technology. The baseline appliances will be aimed at price conscious customers, or customers that simply do not need the higher-end features.
There are 105,000 companies in the 100-to-1, 000-employee medium enterprise category in the US alone, with another 60,000 in the UK, Germany and France, said Pataky. It has to be a ‘leverage the channel’ play, he said.
The company has therefore come up with a selection of channel training, support and marketing packages that are designed specifically for resellers into medium enterprise. It will also run a brand awareness campaign in technology magazines.
While NetScreen already sells to the mid-market, Pataky said research has shown that some customers have thought of NetScreen as a too high-end appliance. He said: We’ve seen [sales] situations were we will not make the shortlist because of pricing.
The company is not, however, attempting to undercut SME-specialist rivals. For example, the $2,745 enhanced version of SonicWall’s Pro 2040 is positioned against the NetScreen 25, which will cost $2,795 in its baseline configuration.
This article is based on material originally published by ComputerWire
