Astaro RED Arrives; Simplifies VPN
The Astaro RED solution (which we’ve written about a few times) is finally here. Here’s the scoop on how it can potentially simplify remote office networking.
Astaro claims RED can actually cut the cost of ownership for remote branch offices by “more than 80%.” The apparent reason: Astaro RED provides VPN (virtual private network) and IT security all in one. Instead of having a messy secondary security gateway at your customers’ remote site, you simply have one single Astaro RED box which is VPNed directly to the Astaro Gateway, wherever it is. That Astaro RED box then links to whatever switches or routers are in the branch, and the whole branch is on the same network, secured and filtered as would users be at base, and surfing the ‘net.
Astaro says RED requires no training, licensing or technical expertise to deply; and the box gets managed through the central office using the Astaro Security Gateway. You just ship the box “and it works,” the company claims. Using DHCP, the RED box is set up to automatically call out to the IP address of the disgnated Gateway. Astaro is positioning the RED box as a solution for any branch, no matter how small, but says that there’s no size limit on users.
Astaro says they developed RED since they saw an issue with smaller branches using lower-end Firewalls and tweaked smaller UTM devices, but lacking all the content security and filtering they needed because of overhead costs.
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We ordered a couple of RED devices to test VPN connectivity. These things are crazy easy to work with. Astaro gets high marks for this product and the price is right that deploying these for remote users and branch offices is an easy decision to make.
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-TVG
I am an end-user…..the astaro products have been some of the most reliable and easy to use enterprise products we have in our environment
Brian: The VAR Guy thanks you for returning and sharing that additional background. Please keep The VAR Guy’s readers posted as you choose additional IT solutions that solve business issues.
-TVG