By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor
Astaro (News - Alert), a Unified Threat Management (UTM) vendor, protects over 50,000 business, school and government networks against IT security threats. In a recent interview with TMCnet CEO Rich Tehrani (News - Alert), Astaro Community Development Manager Jack Daniel outlined some new directions for the company, as well as some of its core products and services.
Distributed by a growing worldwide network of more than 2,500 partners, Astaro products protect over 100,000 networks for 47,000 customers across 60 countries.
The Astaro Security Gateway (News 
- Alert) combines the latest technologies in one easy-to-use solution, providing protection for headquarters, data centers and branch offices. The Astaro Security Gateway can be installed as hardware, software or as a virtual appliance. Users license the security applications of their choice – selecting only what they need.
“We try to make it as simple as possible to properly configure network security and your system security,” Daniel said during the Interop (News - Alert) New York 2010 Conference.
Some of the available solutions are:
* Astaro Network Security, which includes integrated features such as a configurable firewall paired with an Intrusion (News - Alert) Protection system, Denial of Service, lots of traffic forwarding and NAT tools.
* Astaro Mail Security, which ensures that spam, viruses and privacy issues, do not affect daily business routines.
* Astaro Web Security, which makes sure spyware and viruses are stopped before they can enter the network and cause damage.
* The Astaro Mail Archiving Service, which frees up valuable server resources and gains control of compliance requirements, while improving productivity of end-users.
* Astaro Security Gateway's built-in wireless controller, which has access points that are cost-effective and require no manual configuration, redefining wireless networking for small- and medium-sized businesses.
* Astaro’s Command Center, which is a central management app that enables users to see all Astaro products through a single log in.
When it comes to a breach of security, especially with a field such as financial services, a company’s reputation on how well it protects data is pretty important, Daniel said. That means it’s also hard to recover one’s reputation after a security breach. Daniel has specialized knowledge in the field. He supports several information security and technology organizations including the NAISG (National Information Security Group), where he is on the Board of Directors.
He adds that Astaro has options connected to the cloud, too.
“Leveraging the cloud in a way that’s appropriate for your environment is going to be a huge asset,” Daniel said. “There are a lot of people who want to move to the cloud without thinking of the significance of it.”
Astaro is being looked to by larger companies for their security, now, not just the traditional market of the small- to medium-sized businesses, according to Daniel.
He adds that there are several new directions the company is going in, such as a beta version of log analysis.
“We have a lot of things in the pipeline that I think are cool,” Daniel said.
For more of the interview with Daniel, please watch below:
