Astaro Command Center 2.0 Improves VPN Capabilities

March 24, 2009 (Wilmington, MA) - Astaro, leading network security vendor, today announced availability of version 2.0 of its Astaro Command Center. This new version of the popular management tool adds the ability to centrally configure and maintain IPsec VPN tunnels, increased performance for working with hundreds of devices, and a new role for multi-user permissions.

The Astaro Command Center creates a "throne-room" from which to manage multiple Astaro Gateways, including Astaro Security Gateway, Astaro Web Gateway and Astaro Mail Gateway. Provided completely free of charge in its software or virtual versions, the product easily consolidates the current status of multiple Astaro products into a single dashboard. The Command Center offers the ability to schedule product update installations across multiple devices, monitor resource usages, get license information and detailed per-installation statistics, as well as access the WebAdmin for any connected Astaro device.

Astaro Command Center 2.0 adds a new configuration feature which allows administrators to build IPsec VPN tunnels directly from within the Command Center itself, saving significant deployment time. Administrators simply follow the Wizard-driven interface and select from the prompted parameters, and the resulting VPN will permanently join devices together to share printers, transfer files, and run programs, all over a securely encrypted link.

"We have received many requests from our partners and end users requesting the ability to build IPsec VPN tunnels with the Astaro Command Center," explains David Rogers, VP of Sales at Astaro. "This new feature means that organizations with numerous VPN tunnels can easily rebuild them from their 'throne room' rather than spend hours, perhaps even days, building them manually."

Astaro Command Center also includes a dual-portal system with full user management features, allowing partners to offer managed security services for multiple companies through the same management appliance. These companies can all connect to the same Command Center server, which allows the creation of multiple user accounts with specific device visibility and permissions to separate customers into secure groups of devices.

As the economy continues to decline and IT threats continue to climb, the demand for managed services is on the rise. Ron Harmon, President of Celerit Solutions and Astaro Partner, explains, "Managed security services are something that customers are looking for and auditors are telling them they need to have�.The Astaro Command Center is what allows us to offer services with our security."

Astaro Command Center is presented in the same graphical user interface (GUI) as the Astaro Gateway Version 7 WebAdmin, which allows for quick implementation and a short learning curve. The product can be used to manage installations of Astaro�s Security, Web, and Email Gateway appliances, software and virtual machines, and is itself available as a hardware appliance, a software ISO, or a Virtual Machine.