Astaro Adds Encryption To UTM Appliance
Available as an appliance or software, Astaro's Security Gateway version 7 combines nine security technologies that protect against network, Web and e-mail threats, said Alex Quinonez, vice president of sales at Astaro, Burlington, Mass.
SSL VPN is a new addition to the Security Gateway that handles remote access through IPSec, L2TP over IPSec, and PPTP tunneling with SSL VPN. Active clustering also has been added to the mix to allow large enterprises to load-balance traffic among up to 10 Security Gateways, Quinonez said.
Having a single appliance that's easy to set up and manage is important, and the flexibility of Astaro's technology allows partners to address multiple market segments, said Scott Charles, security engineer at Roeing, a Lafayette, Ind.-based solution provider.
"They're able to pack a punch at any level, from home users all the way up to 25,000-seat organizations," Charles said.
Solution providers can wrap performance-tuning services around the Security Gateway, including setting up IPS rules and adjusting spam filters, Quinonez noted. "VARs can create reports showing how many attacks and intrusions were stopped, and being able to quantify that information goes a long way toward showing value," he said.
In addition, the product's user interface has been spruced up to allow users to manage their own settings plus control application whitelists and blacklists, Quinonez added.
Astaro, which has about 250 channel partners in North America, plans to launch an MSP program that will give managed security service providers, or MSSPs, the ability to institute per-seat pricing, monthly billing and hardware leasing, Quinonez said.