This is the second in a series of examples to illustrate the way that functionality that had been implemented on an older platform appears on a newer platform.
See this post for a general introduction with example and explanation of this peculiar pattern of software evolution. This earlier post contains an example in security services software.
This example is known to me personally because my VC firm was an investor, and I was involved with them through the life of the investment.
Example: Aventail
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Old platform |
Dedicated IP-SEC VPN |
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Old function |
Remote access to internal LAN resources |
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New platform |
Web server |
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New function |
Use existing Web infrastructure and https to provide old functionality, enhanced by application-level security, reducing costs and increasing flexibility and security. |
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Outcome |
Some market education required in the early years, but strong position vis-à-vis the competition and good growth. The company was acquired by SonicWall in 2007. |
Aventail built functionality for remote access that has been implemented over and over again, each time a new technology platform has emerged. But they rode what was at the time the latest wave (internet protocols and SSL encryption), and so were participating in a growing market.
I remember using teletype paper terminals running at 110 baud in the late 1960’s for remote access to computers. Whenever a new platform would come out, the new technology wouldn’t support remote access, but for some strange reason, people would want it! So, focused entirely on getting something working in the new environment, and either ignoring or simply being ignorant of earlier solutions to the same problem, someone would build a remote access solution. But then inadequacies would be found, and a release two would come out. All in what appears to be ignorance of solutions built on prior platforms, blind to their lessons-learned..
A good example is the identification and access control system for remote access. The system you want to connect to has some system for user ID’s and passwords, and then some method of access control based on user groups. The remote access is normally first built in the simplest possible way, having its own system administration, user identification and access control. As the use of the system grows, this parallel administration is a burden, and so some level of integration with the core security system is then implemented. The pattern is that the separate system is normally built first; the need for integration is “discovered;” the integrated control systems are supplied in a later release.
When you see this pattern of stupidity and ignorance for the first time, you scratch your head. These are programmers and experienced product people! How could they have missed such an obviously valuable feature of the same functionality built on an earlier platform? Well, that's the pattern, as I described in detail in the first post in this series. It's a wonderful pattern -- it enables anyone who understands it to predict the future with great accuracy and precision!
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