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Conference noted::seal

Title:	SEAL

Moderator:	GALVIA::SMITH

Created:	Mon Mar 21 1994
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1989
Total number of notes:	8209

1847.0. "FIREWALL REVIEWS........" by ANNECY::HOTCHKISS () Fri Mar 07 1997 09:18

    Dear AV product management,
    	Do you have a problem of image and positioning as well as followinf
    the time honoured tradition of stealth marketing?
    
    Look at http://techweb.cmp.com/nc/803/803f1.html for a review of
    firewalls in Network Computing ( you know,the 1 of the 1-3-9..).No
    mention of Digital at all.
    
    Also,try this from Network World: http://www.nwfusion.com
    
    
    
                For small organizations that want to protect themselves
                from assailants, yet allow internal users freedom to roam the
                Internet, Digital Equipment Corp.'s AltaVista Firewall proved
                to be a suitable cost-effective solution. On Windows NT,it
                offers an easy-to-use management console that took us less
                time than any other product to install and configure. 
    
                 But AltaVista Firewall is too inflexible for large networks.
                 For example, it treats everyone inside the firewall
                 identically regardless of who they are. A larger organization
                 would probably feel more comfortable with Raptor Systems,
                 Inc.'s  Eagle, which has greater flexibility in defining
                 services, users and groups that can pass through the firewall. 
    
     Mind you,you could also look at Ziff Davis on
    http://www.zdimag.com/content/anchors/970127/1.html
    
    There again,they its proably not worth it since there is no mention
    either.
    These are all on-line,February reviews.Have you given up?Are you
    working on a killer version 4(we have given up on version 3 already)?
    
    Methinks there is no smoke without fire.Come on,let us in on the
    secret!Do you finally agree with me that we can make more money out of
    service and consultancy than product?
    The silence is ominous..

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
1847.1		NCMAIL::SMITHB		`Fri Mar 07 1997 14:31`	15
	I have always told my customers to stick with the major players in any market. Now when I think of major players in the firewall market, here is my short list: CheckPoint Raptor TIS Hmmm.... We aren't even on the radar screen in market share diagrams in trade mags... But talk to anyone remotely familiar with firewalls, and they know what SEAL means...
1847.2		BIGUN::16.153.176.10::Mayne	Churchill's black dog	`Sun Mar 09 1997 17:03`	11
	So, are you surprised? Product management insists on not telling anybody (including us) what the product actually does, and now it apparently has a new product manager but we don't know who it is, so we can't even ask the PM. Remember when the "possible v3 features" list was posted here a while back, then almost immediately removed because someone might see it? And you expect a magazine to know something about the product? See 1808.1. PJDM
1847.3	Sell Third party products ?	NETRIX::"[email protected]"		`Mon Mar 10 1997 02:25`	11
	mmhhh... what about selling third party firewalls instead of AltaVista Firewall ? From the Systems Integration perspective, it would be a good deal ! We would get our bookings for the product and we could satisfy our customers with an appropriate product. Unfortunatly, SI doesn't get any bookings for selling AltaVista Firewall until now (or has this policy changed already ?). Torsten [Posted by WWW Notes gateway]
1847.4	65% competitive discount !	PRMS00::COLE		`Mon Mar 10 1997 10:12`	11
	Perhaps the AV people are too busy counting the value of stock they get when AV goes public - they aren't paying much attention to the trade press or this notesfile (probably their best supporters ??) And now they are offering the product at 65% competititve discount ($1398 for 50 user NT) until March 31! Who is going to install and support all of these ? ...larry
1847.5	notey	ANNECY::HOTCHKISS		`Mon Mar 10 1997 10:30`	10
	Larry, If the truth be known,AV are behaving correctly in not giving any information to us which they would not also give to other channels.Digital is a partner only.I reckon we should expect that the partners page of their web site will be the best source of info and that someone should get the info from there and post it here. I would not expect Av to respond here at all,in fact I'd be concnerd if they did since they would have de facto access to our network,which we deny to most partners anyway. new world eh?
1847.6		BIGUN::nessus.cao.dec.com::Mayne	Churchill's black dog	`Mon Mar 10 1997 17:12`	14
	> I would not expect Av to respond here at all,in fact I'd be concnerd if > they did since they would have de facto access to our network,which we > deny to most partners anyway. See 1460.*, particularly .3. As for selling third party firewalls, it's already happening. I spent a week in Cairns building a DIY firewall with bits from the TIS toolkit: AltaVista was NonVista. There's the possibility of me installing a number of Norman Systems firewalls that one of our partners sold but can't install. We're nothing special to AV, why should they be anything special to us? PJDM
1847.7		CHEFS::espol1.gmt.dec.com::PITT	Gone with the winsock ...	`Wed Mar 12 1997 06:23`	16
	Of course we can install other products from other companies. One of our strong points as a consultancy organisation is that we are (to a large extent) vendor-neutral. Concerning the lack of a V3 features list, had you all noticed that although we have not been told about it, it is already posted on the External AltaVista WWW Site? I forget the URL, but it's there, and it's NOT on the partner area either: it's PUBLIC information! I'm also told that somewhere on there, there are some statistics about market share, and things like that, and that they show AltaVista Firewall in a good light. Once again, the information is made public without letting us know!!!!! T
1847.8		BIGUN::nessus.cao.dec.com::Mayne	Churchill's black dog	`Wed Mar 12 1997 18:13`	6
	Why should they tell us, we're just another company. Yet another of the "unforeseen" side effects in splitting off the unwanted stuff, i.e. software. PJDM