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Remote-access solutions provider Shiva has opened an office in Hong Kong, and believes the SAR will fit in well with its new strategy of targeting Internet service providers (ISPs).

 The company, which has grabbed a large share of the market for corporations looking to provide employees with remote access to their networks, now hopes to move into the fast-growing ISP market.

 But it may face difficulties, with Ascend Communications already servicing a claimed 90 per cent of Asian ISPs.

 Shiva was at the recent Internet World Hong Kong-China exhibition and conference to promote itself and to meet SAR ISPs.

 Despite a recent drop in Hong Kong-based ISP numbers, there are still more than 60 firms offering Internet access services to the public, making it an attractive market for Shiva, according to a manager in the firm's ISP business unit, Lynn Riley.

 As well as selling remote-access servers, Shiva also sells software-based network management products that allow customers to monitor and control connections coming into their servers.

 Ms Riley said the challenge in providing remote-access solutions was not in building the server, but at the remote-user end.

 With this in mind, Shiva has worked with Microsoft and Netscape to build browsers allowing network management software to monitor activity at the remote end.

 'Shiva is not a products company, we are a technology company, as we have technology solutions that add value to our products,' Ms Riley said.

 The company which has sold its remote-access solutions mostly to corporate customers since 1985, now hopes the added value it provides will appeal to ISPs looking to improve their services.

 Ms Riley explained that although 83 per cent of the companies on the Fortune 500 list were its customers, the rapid growth of the Internet and ISP numbers in the past few years meant it was a logical progression for Shiva to move into the ISP area.

 She said that by using Shiva's solutions, ISPs could improve the quality of the service they offered customers by boosting their connection.

 'I think it is very interesting that ISPs in Hong Kong have fundamentally built their networks, and are interested in how we can help them make money in this very competitive market,' she said.

 Shiva faces tough competition in its new enterprise as growth of the Internet has lured many companies, including leading networking equipment vendors, into sales of remote-access products. According to Dataquest industry analyst Allan Tam, Shiva and Ascend Communications are the leading players in the market.

  However, he said leading networking vendors including Cisco, Bay and 3Com, were trying to provide end-to-end solutions, and needed to add remote-access products to their product range.



Shiva arrives to tap fast-growing market for ISPs