Teros Buy Gives Citrix VARs More Firepower

As part of the acquisition, Citrix will rebrand Teros&' FireLine offering as the Citrix NetScaler Application Firewall, said Wes Wasson, vice president of marketing for Citrix&'s application networking group in San Jose, Calif., formed after Citrix&'s acquisition of NetScaler closed three months ago.

In 2006, Citrix will offer the Teros software as an integrated add-on module to its NetScaler application delivery platform. The Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based company also will continue to sell Teros&' appliances in the interim. Teros currently offers three versions of its Web application firewall appliance priced between $15,000 and $45,000.

Citrix will authorize its 4,000 partners to sell Citrix NetScaler Application Firewall and will hold an official launch of its Teros certification plan at its annual partner conference early next year, Wasson said. Partners, however, can begin selling the product now, he said. In addition, Teros&' channel partners will be invited to join Citrix&'s program.

Teros competes against perimeter-based firewall vendors including NetContinuum, Santa Clara, Calif., Wesson noted. When the Teros module is combined with Citrix&'s NetScaler platform, Citrix&'s combined solution will compete against offerings from F5 Networks. F5 acquired Teros&' competitor, Magnifire, last year.

“The Teros acquisition is a strong continuation of Citrix&'s strategy to provide application security and scalability in conjunction with their core Presentation server platform,” said Paul Freeman, president of Coast Solutions Group, Irvine, Calif. “This new purchase, in conjunction with the NetScaler deal recently, positions Citrix with leading appliances that provide a more complete solution for customer application deployment initiatives.”