As reported previously by Infosecurity, Astaro - which now has more than 220 staff worldwide - moved into the free `cloud intelligence' game in late 2009, and then cut pricing on its UTM technologies in early 2010, presumably to increase its market share.
Those strategies appear to have been successful in attracting the interests of Sophos, although the IT security giant isn't saying how much it is paying for Astaro.
Announcing the acquisition plan, Steve Munford, CEO of Sophos, said that the combination of Astaro’s portfolio of network security solutions alongside those of Sophos will allow his firm to deliver on its vision of providing complete security without complexity wherever the user and company data resides.
Sophos says that Astaro, with 30% year-on-year growth last year, is now the fourth largest UTM provider with more than 56,000 installations in more than 60 countries.
Jan Hitchert, Astaro's CEO, said that he is excited by Sophos' move as together, the two firms will offer customers the ability to apply consistent security and web and application controls regardless of where the user is or where the network boundary may lie.