Nevis to roll out three new releases in four months

Pratima Harigunani

PUNE: LAN security solutions company, Nevis Networks, has three major product upgrades up its sleeves that would be rolled out in the next four months.

Addressing a press conference here, Shane Buckley, COO of Nevis shared that new versions of its products are going to be announced shortly. “We would be launching version 2.4 on December 18, 2006 followed by a brand new feature based software in early January in RSA show in USA. The third release would be in March, 2007.”

The company that has received two rounds of VC funding (total $40 million) from firms like New Path Ventures, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and BlueRun Ventures would be open to series C of funding in 2007.

“Our strategy is to take little money and only when it is actually needed. For the next year, we have sufficient funds to back us and depending on hiring plans, valuation and cash flows, we would be going for another round next year. It would be between $10-25 billion,” Buckley said.

Though he did not specify whether this new fund be a new entrant or an existing stakeholder, he mentioned the significance of investment banks over typical VCs as a company on the maturity curve typicaly prefers funds to inputs and feedback.

“It is too early to decide on who would be funding us, everything depends on who comes to the table and with what valuation negotiation,” he clarified.

Nevis’s R&D facility (10 people) is split between India (4), China (4) and Mountain View, USA (2). Year 2007 would also see investments in new markets besides alliances with technology partners.

“We would be looking for complementary services, domain control and integration areas for these alliances,” said Buckley.

Currently India is its second major market after USA and is followed by Europe.

Nevis’s also announced that its LANenforcer 1048 Secure Access Switch has been chosen by Patni Computer Systems. While Buckley refrained from divulging the magnitude of the business, Ajit Shelat, vice president, Advanced Technology and general manager for Nevis India, said that the order would be deployed in a phased manner.

Later, talking about the future challenges in the network security space to CyberMedia, Buckley pointed out interoperability as a focal development area. “We would be open to partnerships in specific security areas like firewalls or switches and OEM arrangements rather than being in the overall space. As technology becomes more pervasive, integrating different vendor solutions and components would be an issue.”

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