The Karlsruhe-based company’s Astaro Security Gateway presently combines firewall, IPsec VPN, intrusion prevention (IPS), anti-virus and anti-spam, content filtering and anti-phishing, said project management director Michael Frings. The next release, version 7.0, will add email encryption, thanks to the incorporation of software from fellow German developer Utimaco Safeware AG.
The Utimaco software, which has both PGP and S/MIME capabilities, is the most significant differentiator of v7.0, in Frings’ opinion, since no other UTM device on the market offers email encryption.
Indeed, he argued, since some of the leading vendors such as Fortinet use custom ASICs as the basis of their platforms, it would never be possible for them, because you have to store certificates and manage them on the box.
By contrast, the Astaro product is entirely software-based, which Frings argued makes it a more flexible offering that can incorporate innovations more easily.
Other new features in v7.0 are SSL VPN, an HTTPS proxy and a transparent FTP proxy. Frings said the new version will go on general availability in August.
