Astaro is in it for the long haul

Once again, it's time to play "How will we watch the border?" Over the past few weeks, we've looked at the possibility that there will be a new version (3.9) of BorderManager. Or maybe not. That there might be a replacement for it called Novell Access Manager (NAM), or maybe not. And that Novell Security Manager Powered by Astaro (NSMPBA) may be the long-term solution, or may be going away.

One thing I have gotten confirmed, though (because it's straight from the horse's mouth) is that Astaro would love you to use the Astaro Security Gateway (ASG) to protect your enterprise. The "horse," in this case, is Alex Neihaus, Astaro's vice president of marketing. He assures me that not only is this the same software that makes up NSMPBA, but anyone who buys Novell Security Manager Powered by Astaro can continue to upgrade and update their installation - even if Novell drops the product - by getting the new versions of ASG.

That means that I "misspoke" in a newsletter about Astaro last year, when I said upgrading NSMPBA was not going to be as easy as simply doing an upgrade to your NSM with the Astaro software. Actually, it really is that easy according to Neihaus. Anytime Astaro puts out a new release, you simply need to apply it to your NSMPBA installation. If I'd known that at the time, I probably could have forestalled the only negative e-mail I've gotten about the Astaro product. Reader Lance Groth wrote:

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Once again, it's time to play "How will we watch the border?" Over the past few weeks, we've looked at the possibility that there will be a new version (3.9) of BorderManager. Or maybe not. That there might be a replacement for it called Novell Access Manager (NAM), or maybe not. And that Novell Security Manager Powered by Astaro (NSMPBA) may be the long-term solution, or may be going away.

One thing I have gotten confirmed, though (because it's straight from the horse's mouth) is that Astaro would love you to use the Astaro Security Gateway (ASG) to protect your enterprise. The "horse," in this case, is Alex Neihaus, Astaro's vice president of marketing. He assures me that not only is this the same software that makes up NSMPBA, but anyone who buys Novell Security Manager Powered by Astaro can continue to upgrade and update their installation - even if Novell drops the product - by getting the new versions of ASG.

That means that I "misspoke" in a newsletter about Astaro last year, when I said upgrading NSMPBA was not going to be as easy as simply doing an upgrade to your NSM with the Astaro software. Actually, it really is that easy according to Neihaus. Anytime Astaro puts out a new release, you simply need to apply it to your NSMPBA installation. If I'd known that at the time, I probably could have forestalled the only negative e-mail I've gotten about the Astaro product. Reader Lance Groth wrote:

"I tested [NetWare Security Manager] on the assumption that B/M [BorderManager] was dead and Astaro would soon include most of B/M's functionality. Big disappointment - it didn't have half of what B/M does, had only two standard proxies included, and the documentation was so sketchy I couldn't even figure out how to define a generic proxy." He also didn't think it was very well integrated with eDirectory. But most of those problems were overcome in subsequent releases of Astaro Security Gateway, which (as I said) can be installed as an upgrade to NSMPBA.

In fact, for all of you BorderManager users, Astaro has a cornucopia of aids and help to guide you through a migration to ASG. Just browse to Astaro's resource site, a wiki designed as "a platform to help users migrate from Novell BorderManager to Novell Security Manager or Astaro Security Gateway Appliances." Here you can find out how best to migrate as well as how to perform standard BorderManager functions within ASG (or NSMPBA, if that's the path you prefer).

All of the offerings from Novell - BorderManager, Novell Access Manager and Novell Security Manager - have cloudy futures, if they have any at all. But the Astaro Security Gateway is in it for the long haul and may just be the best way for a NetWare shop to go.

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