VPN Service Keeps It Simple

or years, Ed Merians has believed that secure remote access for small and midsize businesses should be as easy as pie.

So earlier this year Merians founded SSL VPN firm FLEXbridge Technologies based on that belief, building the company around an innovative new solution appropriately named Pie.

Billed as an “easy private network,” Pie is a subscription-based service that will provide SMBs with the power to create enterprise-quality VPNs quickly and instantly, Merians said. Though Larchmont, N.Y.-based FLEXbridge is not selling the product currently, Merians said the company expects to launch a channel program sometime before the end of the year.

“Our plan is to sell exclusively through the channel and distributors,” Merians said, adding that he projects reseller margins of up to 30 percent. “A lot of SMBs look to VARs as their partners, and that’s the kind of close relationship we want to be a part of.”

Pie isn’t just about VPN. Thanks to technology powered by Hitachi Data Systems, the service features remote storage, secure e-mail and managed backup, all with 2,048-bit encryption. Data on Pie is physically secure, too--when users log on, the connection tunnels them to a Hitachi server in a former Air Command Center buried deep in the mountains of Sweden, Merians said.

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What’s more, with FLEXbridge’s Optical Business Card, users can gain access to the service from any computer in the world simply by inserting a pint-sized CD and accessing the software stored within.

Merians said the Pie solution is so simple that solution providers and resellers alike will be able to incorporate it into pre-existing sales efforts without even worrying about adding services around it.

“The good thing for VARs is that this is so inclusive that it creates an atmosphere where they can focus on other issues,” he said. “You make a sale, you go on to the next guy.”