Global IT security and data protection company Sophos today announced that it has completed its acquisition of network security vendor Astaro. This acquisition will allow Sophos to deliver coordinated, best-in- class threat and data protection offerings from every endpoint to any network boundary.
Organizations today face new challenges in protecting users and IT infrastructure from complex and targeted security threats; especially those that gain entry from across the Web or through new applications. As workforces become distributed across multiple offices, including the home, even basic security controls have become hard to update and enforce. Through this acquisition, Sophos will address the need for security solutions that provide threat and policy protection no matter where the user or company data resides.
“Never before has the security and IT environment been so challenging to secure for our customers,” said Steve Munford, Chief Executive Officer, Sophos. “Together Sophos and Astaro have the ingredients to uniquely solve today and tomorrow’s increasingly complex security challenges while allowing IT to enable users to work more flexibly and embrace new devices and applications.”
The acquisition, which was announced on May 6, 2011, will deliver an industry-first combination of endpoint protection with UTM. Once integration is complete, the Sophos portfolio of security products will:
- Combine Astaro’s network security with Sophos’ threat expertise. The initial integration with the Astaro Security Gateway and Sophos Anti-Virus will bring real-time protection against malware using Sophos Live Protection infrastructure, a comprehensive architecture for real-time updates to users in offices anywhere around the globe, and Sophos Web protection, real-time blocking of malicious websites via SophosLabs extensive Web reputation systems; which classify over 50,000 infected Web pages every day.
- Longer term, the integration will allow central management of anti-malware, Web and data control policies across endpoint, mobile and network enforcement points – including consumer-owned mobile devices and branch, home or remote offices. This will offer IT better visibility and control, whether the enforcement points are enterprise, consumer owned or located at a central, branch or home or remote office.
- Upon completing Astaro partner certification, Sophos partners will have access to the full network security portfolio including unique capabilities for protecting branch offices, log management and a leading network security gateway available in any delivery model. Likewise, Astaro partners will have the opportunity to become Sophos partners and deliver a complete set of endpoint, mobile and gateway solutions to their customers.
“Both companies are pragmatic and appreciate the need to be simple and secure for target buyers,” wrote The 451 Group in a May 6th 2011 Deal Analysis1 , regarding the acquisition. “The disruptions in this market require bold moves. Sophos has made one.”
“We founded Astaro with the mission of bringing network security products to organizations of all sizes and accomplished this goal by creating easy-to-use, Unified Threat Management solutions that addressed several facets of network security. However, as the threat landscape continued to evolve it became clear that gateway security alone would no longer be sufficient to effectively secure a network,” said Jan Hichert, Astaro co-founder and CEO, and now Sophos’ Senior Vice President and General Manager, Network Security.
About Sophos
More than 100 million users in 150 countries rely on Sophos as the best protection against complex threats and data loss. Sophos is committed to providing security and data protection solutions that are simple to manage, deploy and use and that deliver the industry's lowest total cost of ownership. Sophos offers award-winning encryption, endpoint security, web, email, and network access control solutions backed by SophosLabs – a global network of threat intelligence centers. With more than two decades of experience, Sophos is regarded as a leader in security and data protection by top analyst firms and has received many industry awards. Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK.
About Astaro
Astaro offers the most complete and easy to use network security appliances available. Astaro’s award-winning products provide the latest protection with the best total cost of ownership. Software, hardware and virtual appliance offerings provide users the flexibility to meet a wide variety of deployment scenarios. Distributed by a growing worldwide network of more than 2,500 resellers, more than 56,000 Astaro installations protect business, school and government networks against IT security threats. Astaro, headquartered in Karlsruhe, Germany, offers free downloads of its products at www.astaro.com.
1 “Sophos moves beyond the endpoint in acquiring Astaro” published May 6, 2011.
You Can Learn More About the Astaro Internet Security Product Line By Going to www.FirewallShop.com/Astaro.
The original article/video can be found at Sophos Broadens Security Portfolio with Completion of Astaro Acquisition