STOCKHOLM -- Europe’s leading SSL VPN company, PortWise, today announced that it has signed its first distributor agreement for the Australasian market with specialist IT security distributor, Pixel Productions Pty Ltd. The agreement is part of PortWise’s on-going global expansion for its award winning Secure Socket Layer Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN) solutions.

Established in 1992, Pixel Productions Pty Ltd specialises in the distribution of a range of network administration products that automate many administration processes. With a solid client base of banking, mining and key commercial and government accounts, Pixel provide products that include leading industry solutions to solve common network management issues.

Paul Pepper, Sales Director for Pixel Productions Pty Ltd, commented, “SSL VPN is the fastest growing sector of the security market. Our corporate customers are looking for best of breed solutions and PortWise has the most comprehensive product suite of any other vendor in this space. We look forward to incorporating the PortWise solution into our product offerings.”

Kaushik Thakkar, Co-Founder and Vice President Strategic Development for PortWise, added, “We are seeing worldwide demand for our SSL VPN solutions. Our strong policy management capability gives it a significant competitive advantage, especially with regards to large corporate enterprises by employees and partners flexible and secure access to critical business information from any browser. We look forward to working with premier partners such as Pixel to expand our global sales reach.”

As part of the agreement, Pixel will become a distributor of the PortWise solution for the Australasian market. The PortWise product suite provides companies with secure remote access to corporate applications using the Internet and the latest security standards. This type of access significantly improves enterprise efficiency and productivity – without the limitations and expense associated with other access technologies—and dramatically lowers administrative requirements. The PortWise product suite, shipped as both software and security appliance, is widely recognised as the leading offering in terms of its ability to address the issues facing the next generation of SSL VPNs – scalability and policy management.

In a separate release:

PortWise today announced the appointment of Karen Slatford as Non-Executive Director. Karen brings a wealth of industry insight and knowledge to the PortWise board of directors as the company begins its global expansion.

Karen is the former Vice President and General Manager Worldwide Sales and Marketing, Business Customer Organisation for Hewlett Packard, where she was responsible for all sales of products, services and software to business customers worldwide. Throughout her seventeen year career at Hewlett Packard, she held a number of senior executive management roles in the company, including Chairman of Hewlett Packard UK Ltd.

“Karen possesses an extraordinary wealth of industry knowledge, gained over a successful career creating and managing growth at the enterprise level, and structuring and managing channel sales,” said Kaushik Thakkar, Co-Founder and Vice President Strategic Development for PortWise. “We are absolutely delighted to have someone of Karen’s calibre joining the PortWise board, and are confident that she will enhance our ability to rise to the challenges associated with our very significant growth.”

PortWise recently announced that it has secured €8 million in Series B funding to finance its global expansion plans led by Cazenove Private Equity with additional investment from Four Seasons Venture.

Karen holds a BA (Hons) in European Studies with joint majors in French and Spanish. She also sits on the board of a number of other IT companies.

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