Imprivata Readies Partner Strategy

The startup chose a 100 percent channel model for its OneSign product, said Satish Maripuri, senior vice president of sales and service at Imprivata, based here. All marketing and lead generation will support Imprivata's channel partners, which will provide training and services to customers, said Maripuri, former president of eXcelon, a software provider.

Imprivata has signed up seven regional VARs to sell OneSign, which is targeted at the midmarket and is slated to ship in February.

Built on a secure Sun Microsystems appliance running Linux, OneSign sits behind the firewall and provides single sign-on (SSO) to Web, client/server and legacy applications, Maripuri said. The appliance doesn't require changes to applications or directories.

"OneSign is a really innovative solution that's generating a lot of interest from our customers," said Scott Walker, vice president at Accuvant, a Denver-based security solution provider. "It solves a complicated problem without being complicated itself."

SSO can reduce help-desk calls by eliminating password-reset requests, he said.

An issue of concern with SSO has been the time and cost of integration, but OneSign is easy for VARs to integrate, said Tom Malkus, president of Data Processing Sciences, a Cincinnati-based solution provider. Any SSO product requires the addition of strong authentication such as RSA SecurID tokens or biometrics, he added.

Tom Gobeille, president and CEO of Network Computing Architects, a Bellevue, Wash.-based integrator, said Imprivata offers unique technology, strong management and venture capital. "If you combine those things with a good product and the appliance concept, you have a winner," he said.

Tentative pricing for OneSign, which ships as a pair of redundant appliances, ranges from $20,000 for about 200 users to $100,000 for about 5,000 users.