October 23, 2001
Today Funk Software, the developer of the industry-leading Steel-Belted Radius(R) family of RADIUS/AAA servers, and Bluesocket, a developer of products that provide security and management to wireless local area networks (WLANs) announced that they have partnered to offer superior, joint solutions to facilitate the easy deployment of secure WLANs, such as those based on products from companies including Agere and Enterasys.
Studies show that adoption of wireless networking in the workplace has significant financial benefits, as illustrated by Sage Research, Inc.'s findings that WLAN-enabled employees improve productivity by as much as eight hours a week, involving an average savings of $250 per week per employee. The "soft" benefits, such as increased flexibility, decreased stress, better collaboration, and so on add to the quantifiable benefits of wireless work across an enterprise or campus. However, security remains the primary inhibitor to deployment.
"Thus technology and marketing relationships between companies focused on securing and automating WLAN users, such as the relationship between Bluesocket and Funk Software, are both cost effective and necessary in our increasingly security-conscious world," said Joe Ryan, vice president of Funk Software." "Bluesocket has emerged as the market leader in providing management solutions for wireless LANs and together, we plan to drive the adoption of wireless networks by the enterprise world."
With the agreement, Bluesocket will recommend Steel-Belted Radius to its channel and end-user customers as the preferred RADIUS/AAA server which fully supports Bluesocket's WG-1000 Wireless Gateway. The joint solution offers end-to-end security and authentication for wireless LANs. Bluesocket's WG-1000 provides network management administration, encryption and authorization to access network resources, and Funk Software offers authentication with its industry-proven Steel-Belted Radius server.
The agreement also addresses further collaboration between the two companies:
1) Joint marketing activities including a Webinar on "Secure
Mobility and Security Authentication" to take place in
November 2001.
2) Actively recommending Funk Software's Steel-Belted Radius and
Bluesocket Wireless Gateway products to each company's OEM, Channel, and End-User customers in appropriate marketing vehicles including coordinated mailing campaigns (print and e-mail).
3) Mutual URL links to company web sites.
4) Technical Reseller and Channel training and assignment of technical resources for both support and technical communications between the companies.
5) Advanced testing and certification of compatibility of the companies' products.
"Authentication is a crucial requirement to secure corporate networks," said Carol Schmitt, Vice President of Bluesocket, Inc. "Through partnering with Funk Software--the industry leader in proven solutions for secure authentication--we'll deliver a joint solution for what market research firm IDC calls the three A's --authentication, authorization and administration."
The U.S. wireless LAN market is already approaching $1 billion in revenues from users in vertical markets such as healthcare, manufacturing, warehousing and retail that employ handheld devices and notebook computers to transmit real-time information to centralized hosts for processing. Revenues are expected to more than double by 2002 as wireless adoption spreads, particularly to enterprises that want to augment their wired LAN networks in conference rooms or install completely wireless networks to minimize the expense of moves, additions, and changes.
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