AEP: Functionality Priced Right

ize is everything for security vendor AEP Systems.

While most vendors in the space sell to enterprises big and small, AEP, which provides a bevy of hardware security products, encourages its channel partners to focus solely on small and midsize businesses.“We have built our entire business around SMBs and the prices they can afford,” said Shannon Downey, AEP’s product and channel marketing manager. “Our resellers know that what sets our tools apart is that they sell for one price and include no hidden costs of any kind.”

Take the company’s A-Gate SSL VPN solution, for instance. This tool, perhaps AEP’s most popular product, retails for $8,995, a bargain when compared with similar SMB-oriented tools that sell for nearly $80,000 after licensing and other services, Downey said.

As Downey explained, the Dublin, Ireland-based company, with U.S. headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif., also specializes in high-performance cryptographic appliances, subsystems and ASIC technology that deliver industry-leading speeds for SSL, public key infrastructure and mobile markets.

Channel partners said AEP’s solutions provide lucrative opportunities. Jerry Preziuso, vice president of sales and marketing at MasStor Technologies in Montreal, said his U.S. customers demand functional solutions at reasonable price points, noting that AEP products satisfy them on both fronts.

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“Our customers work in price-sensitive markets, which makes AEP a natural choice,” Preziuso said. MasStor also participates in channel programs at larger vendors such as Check Point Software Technologies and Cisco Systems. “Compared to the other products we sell, if I had to do a spot analysis, functionality-wise, I’d say that AEP stacks up on an even keel,” he said.

Downey said MasStor could be getting more competition in North America soon. AEP currently has eight resellers in the United States, but plans to double that number by year’s end.