Juniper Networks grabbed top honors due to its excellent performance in terms of revenues for SSL VPN in the Asia Pacific region during 2008. The Asia Pacific SSL VPN Market Leadership Award is also the only award conferred to the region's SSL VPN market by Frost & Sullivan.

"Juniper continues to deliver the market leading SSL VPN in the world.  We are pleased to be recognized for enabling enterprises and service providers in the APAC region to deliver the reliable anytime, anywhere secure access that is critical to their business and future growth in an increasingly diverse and mobile workforce," said Sanjay Beri, vice president and general manager, Access and Acceleration Business Unit at Juniper Networks. "This Award underscores our ongoing commitment to providing the best security for our clients while enabling high business productivity."

Juniper Networks' ability to obtain the highest market share among all the SSL VPN security providers in the region during 2008 was a key demonstration of the company's success. According to the report, the company grew its SSL VPN revenue in APAC by 27 percent compared to 2007. The growth further cemented its leadership position by increasing its market share lead over the second placed competitor to 11 percent in 2008.

The Award highlights Juniper Networks' impressive market share in the SSL VPN market. This growth was mainly driven by the company's market-leading technology and an effective go-to-market strategy that has resounded well in the region.

Frost & Sullivan's research tracked revenues, growth, market share and other business metrics through interviews and extensive secondary research. In the process of selecting Juniper for this award, Frost & Sullivan conducted the research in 14 countries throughout the region and found that Juniper Networks best met the award parameters across the region.

IDC's 2009 Global Study, which was sponsored by Microsoft, says that the sector will help drive growth in economies worldwide to create 5.8 million new jobs and 75,000 new businesses globally over the next four years.

It expects growth in worldwide IT spending on hardware, software and services to continue at a pace roughly three times that of the rest of the economy between now and 2013.

"In this fundamental economic reset, innovative technologies will play a vital role in driving productivity gains and enabling the creation of new local businesses and highly skilled jobs that fuel economic recovery and support sustainable economic growth," said Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

Emerging countries will account for only 21% of IT spending this year but, over  the next four years, will be responsible for more than 50%  of net new IT spending.

The total IT spend for all 52 countries analysed in the study will be $1.4 trillion in 2009, with countries from the Middle East and Africa region accounting for $36 billion.

Based on IDC findings for the Arab region, Turkey is the country that will spend the most on IT this year at $7.2 billion. Saudi Arabia follows at $5.9 billion, then the United Arab Emirates at $4.1 billion and Egypt at $1.9 billion.

Imprivata, Inc., the employee access management company, today announced that it received a positive rating in Gartner’s report entitled “MarketScope for Enterprise Single Sign-On[i].” Imprivata’s OneSign^® Platform is an appliance-based employee access management solution that enables organizations to protect enterprise information assets while improving user workflow, productivity and satisfaction.

Imprivata continues to be the leader in the identity and access management market by providing organizations with the most robust and versatile solution for strengthening user authentication, enabling application single sign-on (SSO) and improving end-user workflow. With its appliance-based approach and seamless integration with enterprise systems, the OneSign Platform is the employee access management solution of choice for companies of all types and sizes looking to protect their most critical information assets.

“We believe Gartner’s positive rating confirms our position in the market and our commitment to product excellence,” said Omar Hussain, president and CEO of Imprivata. “Our OneSign Platform has helped close to 1000 companies solve their most pressing password management issues while providing secure application access and simplifying the process of compliance reporting. The significant increase in the number of companies implementing OneSign is highly indicative of the strong gains our customers are experiencing. We are delighted to be recognized by Gartner for our achievements.”

The OneSign Platform is an employee access management platform that strengthens user authentication to desktops and networks, streamlines application access and simplifies the process of compliance reporting--all delivered through a secure, self-contained appliance that requires zero modifications to existing IT infrastructure. Centrally managed from a single administrative console, OneSign secures access across Windows, host-based, Citrix and virtual desktop environments. Imprivata OneSign empowers organizations to balance the need for stronger security with improved employee workflow and productivity. The solution also reduces the time and complexity of complying with regulated access control requirements and password management costs that consume IT help desk resources.