OpenMarket drops WebSecure

Open Market (OMKT), just tapped by Software Magazine as the fastest-growing software company in 1996, has ceased marketing its secure Web server software to concentrate on its Internet commerce offerings.

Open Market, which said it officially stopped marketing the product on June 30, said that as other companies now sell secure Web servers, WebSecure was not key to its strategy.

"Two years ago when we developed the product, there were no other commercially available Web servers," said spokeswoman Beth Winkowski. Since then, she said that Microsoft and Netscape have entered the market.

"With so many viable Web server products, it doesn't make sense to devote resources to it," Winkowski added.

Open Market will continue to support existing WebSecure customers that have maintenance contracts; the contracts usually last one year.

WebSecure was available on Sun Solaris, Sun O/S, HP-UX, SGI Irix, and HP's MPE platform for HP 3000 machines.

Open Market may have burned a few bridges in HP's 3000 unit, where HP had just finished a promotion for Open Market's WebSecure for HP's proprietary operating system. Open Market insists the decision was not sudden.

Open Market has not marketed the product actively for about a year, Winkowski said, and it has received inquiries from companies interested in taking over support of the product.

David Greene, communication manager for the HP 3000 line, said that it is discouraging customers from buying new Open Market Web servers because the product is being discontinued. Every customer who had ordered WebSecure, which became available in December 1996, pulled its order.

HP will continue to support customers who are currently using WebSecure, while it seeks another vendor to port to its platform. Besides Open Market, only Q-webs makes a Web server for the HP 3000 platform, Greene said.