Astaro: Can VARs Profit From Free Security?
You might never have heard of Astaro, so let me give you a quick rundown. They’re a relatively small company (less than 200 employees) with headquarters in Germany. But 60% of their business is outside Germany. Part of that strategy involves a free Software or VM Firewall image appliance based on Linux. They’re also doing some interesting innovation. VARs might want to take note of this quiet little company that’s starting to make some noise. Here’s why.
Astaro’s internet security business is based around Linux Appliances. You can buy hardware appliances, or download their software appliances. They have a variety of UTM solutions, from network security, anti-spam, gateway encryption, web security, and a host of other features. Plus, Astaro offer them to work in the VMware environment.
So what about that free firewall? Basically, Astaro gives you a starter appliance, offering a limited amount of functionally, but good enough. They call it the ‘essential edition’, and you can get it here for businesses (there’s a home edition, too.)
Off course, Astaro also wants to make money. Basically, they sell the subscriptions for different aforementioned services, and their channel partners can go in and switch the services on and off.
What’s next from Astaro? Watch for….
Astaro RED – April 2: The Remote Ethernet Device (RED ) is looking to change how VPNs and remote connections are made. The quick and dirty explanation: A box with two Ethernet ports and a specific serial number is used to connect small-branch offices or even a single user with the entire ‘mothership’ data center, wherever it may be.
Astaro’s RED box talks to a special central UTM gateway that is hosted in the cloud and managed by the partner or MSP. All the MSP has to do is alert the UTM to accept a new RED device and input the specific RED serial number. In theory, that’s super quick, clean, and transparent to the customer. Now, anything (device, server, appliance) and anyone connected to RED at the branch office (or home) can just jack in and act like they were on the main network. This potentially eliminates the problems of VPN tunning and IP address assigning. Price tag for the new gizmo? Just $295.
Email Archiving – May: This one’s simple. Flip a switch and all mail is archived to Amazon cloud. It allows also, for a hybrid solution on premise, too. And don’t worry, all backed-up data is encrypted and compressed as it goes away to Amazon’s cloud. But there’s more: using Astaro’s webclient or outlook plugin, you can browse the backed-up PST in real time.
New Wireless Security Solution – June 1: Astaro is looking to break out of the traditional use of consumer-grade devices for small WiFi solutions in the business marketplace.
Basically, Astaro’s software uses their UTM gateways as wireless controllers. They offer an 802.11n smoke-detector sized access point. They show up the in the GUI of the gateway, so the administrator can configure the access points and how they function. You can also use them as repeaters or have multiple SSIDs to control traffic or tweak it to act seamlessly for easy roaming about the office.
All three of these products are still in beta, with Astaro partners already using and testing the software.
Bigger Picture
But what’s their main strategy? Astaro CEO Jan Hichert says delivering a low-cost platform for security applications to partners is a top priority. Along the way, Astaro wants to help ensure solid partner profits by allowing partners to co-brand all products, services and software. Astaro also offers a 40% discount to channel partners.
Their central management solution — Astaro Command Center — is also free for partners.
We’ll be watching as the RED, Email Archiving and Wireless Security solutions arrive.
Not much capability on the vpn side no ipsec and no ssl vpns. Pretty much useless for anyone needing a vpn connection. The paid version is an outstanding product. This one looks doa to me. There are several other open source based products that offer far more functionality for no money.
Hi Mark: The VAR Guy welcomes constructive criticism and reader feedback. But can you disclose if you work for a rival software provider? Are you an IT manager? Solutions provider? The VAR Guy is all ears.
-TVG
I run an outsourced it department for a group of franchised locations. We primarily use open source solutions when possible. We also use the paid version of Astaro, as I said it is an outstanding product if you need it. I think they are doing themselves a disservice by crippling their new offering. Why would anyone that needs to use a VPN even consider using it?
How does this compare to Untangle?
When we evaluated untangle they did not have ipsec vpn. We have to interface with the corporate mother ship and this requires an ipsec vpn. Unfortunately that took Untanlge out of the running for us. With Astaro there is a separate fee for content filtering and virus protection. Their license fee scheme makes it tough to justify for a small installation. They need to decide if they want to be SAP or Intuit. Sell a few for a lot or sell a lot for a few.
MW
Mark: The VAR Guy appreciates you coming back to the conversation and telling readers a bit more about your experiences. Please keep our resident blogger (and his readers…) posted as you make more decisions around Astaro, etc.
-TVG
After reading your article I downloaded and installed this software. Really easy to install, set up, and use. This has been since the 12th or so that I did this. Since then I have completed the partner paperwork and even sent some emails trying to figure out what the cost is to go from FREE to paid so I can decide if this is worth further testing. So how do you get the guys at Astaro to respond to you? If my experience is any indication, I think I will just stick with Sonicwall.
Robert: The VAR Guy will ping Astaro for you to see if they can jump into this conversation.
-TVG
Hi Robert Nelson
It should be usually very easy to contact Astaro.
If you want to become Astaro Partner, follow this link
http://www.astaro.com/partners/become-an-astaro-partner
if you want to become customer and search an astaro partner, follow this link
http://www.astaro.com/partners/locate-an-astaro-partner
Every Astaro Partner will provide you the upgrade options and costs if you’re thinking about beefing up your free essential firewall edition.