If you don't get that done in 18 months, you're not going to make it. There are too many well-funded, bright people out there. Long term, the vendors face the continuing menace of the network giants, particularly Cisco, which holds such powerful sway over many enterprises. Even if VPN vendors have better products, Cisco has clout to keep its customers from buying from others. Cisco puts its arms around the customers and says, 'Hey, these guys at Indus River have a great offering, but I'm worried about their ability to support you and take care of you like we have.
Arrogant companies try to manage customer relationships to the exclusion of other people.
Equally worrisome is the fact that Cisco and others just have the sheer size to dominate even if they make mistakes and are slow with products. The VPN start-ups need to bulk up to critical mass, Steding said. In his view, similar VPN companies would benefit from merging to make themselves more attractive to Wall Street, selling public stock and using the proceeds to develop better products. Somebody's going to take a bold stroke and reinvent the whole mess, and it's going to change all the rules. Hember agreed there was room to beat out Cisco in the VPN market, and noted that not long ago Ascend managed to slingshot past better established vendors in remote access.