Aventail Positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of SSL VPN Magic Quadrant 3Q2005

Market Wire, December, 2005

New York Interop -- Aventail Corporation (www.aventail.com) is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant of the just-released Gartner North American SSL VPN Magic Quadrant report for 3Q 2005 (1). According to Gartner, Inc., "Leaders are performing well today, have a clear vision of market direction, and are actively building competencies to sustain their leadership position in the market."

"Over the last four years, SSL-based VPNs have become the predominant secure access platform, and we're proud to lead this market and work with our partners to provide increasingly capable solutions for our customers," said Evan Kaplan, president and CEO, Aventail. "Aventail will continue to aggressively pursue new initiatives as we deliver on our vision of providing the single gateway for all user-based access to enterprise resources."

The 3Q 2005 report is based on vendor performance over an 18-month period from January 2004 through June 2005. It evaluates the companies based on multiple criteria relating to execution and vision.

(1) Magic Quadrant for SSL VPN, North America, 3Q05. Publication Date: 8 December 2005. John Girard. Research ID# G00131856.

About the Magic Quadrant

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted Dec. 8, 2005, by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

About Aventail

Aventail is the best-of-breed SSL VPN technology company and the authority on secure application access technology. Aventail delivered the first SSL VPN solution in 1997, and today, Aventail meets the secure communication needs of more than two million end users globally. Aventail's family of Smart Technology SSL VPN appliances increases productivity for end users and IT professionals, while maximizing security and lowering costs. Aventail SSL VPNs lead the industry in End Point Control, policy management, and transparent, easy-to-use access options to the broadest range of applications. Aventail is the SSL VPN of choice among leading enterprises and service providers worldwide, such as AT&T, DuPont, IBM Global Services, MCI, Netifice, Office Depot, Sanyo, and TNT. For more information, go to www.aventail.com.

Aventail, Aventail ST, Aventail Smart Access, Aventail Smart Tunneling, Aventail EPC,, Aventail OnDemand, Aventail Connect, Aventail Secure Collaboration, Aventail EX-2500, EX-1500, Aventail EX-750, and their respective logos are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of Aventail Corporation. Other product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners and are mentioned for identification purposes only

Media contacts: Margaret Dawson (206) 355-6872 Shannon Mapp (206) 779-3727 Aventail Corporation Email Contact Booth #441-16