Beltway Biz

By Marianne Dunn

Onix Networking Corp., a Chantilly, Va., network integrator serving the commercial, government and education markets, will partner with TimeStep Corp., Ontario, Canada, to provide the U.S. government with secure virtual private networks.

"The federal government has come to realize the urgency of secure data communications," said Nicky Itkin, Onix director of sales. "While Onix understands the intricacies of the federal market and has the necessary clearances to operate in that environment, TimeStep, as the only IPSec-compliant VPN vendor with FIPS 140 certification, is a critical element to our success."

The National Institute of Standards and Technology set FIPS 140 certification as a standard for secure data communications. It is required for the transmission of sensitive information.
A new advocacy group is taking the concerns of Internet companies to Capitol Hill. Capital Advantage, a publisher of congressional directories and developer of a grass-roots legislative action tool, launched E-advocates, an Internet advocacy consulting firm in Fairfax, Va.

"In launching E-advocates, we are responding to growing customer demand for 'cyberadvocacy' consulting," said Bob Hansan, president of Capitol Advantage. "Organizations have been quick to see the value in newly available online advocacy tools and services; yet, their in-house talent pool may lack the know-how when it comes to creating sophisticated Internet strategies that can achieve legislative and political goals."
Vertex International, an IT solutions provider to business and government customers based in Ferndale, Mich., has formed a small, woman-owned business to provide IT products and services to government customers.

The new company, Fed-Tek LLC, has offices in Michigan and Washington, D.C. Fed-Tek will offer storage products, smart-card systems and various software tools from leading-edge manufacturers, including Data General Corp. and Packeteer Inc.