Untangle aims to straighten out network security for small and midsize businesses with an open-source version of its core product.
The Untangle Gateway Platform is now licensed under General Public License v2, and provides open-source advocates with a new tool for blocking spam, spyware, viruses, adware and unwanted content on their networks. Company officials said the offering gives SMB customers and channel partners an alternative to more expensive, proprietary appliances from vendors like SonicWall and WatchGuard Technologies.
“In a nutshell, this means the software is free to use, modify and even distribute,” said Raul Mujica, vice president of marketing for Untangle, based in San Mateo, Calif. “No restrictions. It means more businesses, especially SMBs, will be able to use the latest and best network security software in an easy-to-use package.”
The Untangle Gateway Platform is built around more than 30 open-source projects, including SpamAssassin, ClamAV and Snort, and the complete system can be downloaded, installed and configured in less than 1 hour, company officials said.
Every application-such as spam blocking, Web filter or VPN-is presented as a virtual appliance that can be turned on or off with one button on the GUI, Mujica said.
Configuration settings are available directly from each virtual appliance, and views can be organized by dates, users, protocols and applications. The platform also “phones home” to the Untangle Data Center to receive updated spam, spyware and virus signatures, Web category lists, and, of course, product updates.
Live support and premium extensions from Untangle are also available starting at $25 per month.
“The SMB market can really use a cheaper and more flexible alternative than the appliance vendors,” Mujica said. “There are great open-source projects and technologies out there but they werent being adopted quickly enough.
“By integrating these open-source projects under one admin and management framework and developing the virtual pipelining technology to get them to all run on one server, were taking open source to mainstream SMBs,” Mujica said.
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