Celestix Networks has released their flagship MSA™ series security appliances with Microsoft’s new Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 (TMG) and with complete refreshes of Celestix’ appliance hardware platforms and Celestix appliance engine software.

Celestix reengineered their MSA series security appliances to integrate with Microsoft’s 64-bit TMG software and Windows Server 2008 operating system. TMG provides the strong flexibility its predecessor ISA Server 2006 did by supporting deployment scenarios for application-layer firewall, proxy and caching. In addition to these features, TMG has new features including built-in URL filtering, web anti-virus/anti-malware support, HTTPS inspection capabilities, and vulnerability-based intrusion detection/prevention. Microsoft has also added enhanced support for array management, load balancing and ISP redundancy.

The new MSA appliances also introduce Celestix’ next-generation Comet™ appliance engine software. Celestix reengineered their appliance engine from the ground up to deliver the fully integrated appliance experience familiar to existing Celestix customers. Comet™ takes full advantage of the new 64-bit architecture to provide datacenter-ready features such as a web user interface (for headless operation), integrated save/restore of Last Good Version (for disaster recovery), and a rebuilt software update engine to provide a comprehensive view of patching.

Celestix reengineered their new 6^th-generation hardware platforms to maximize the performance of Microsoft’s 64-bit Windows 2008 OS and TMG 2010 with added processing power and memory. For smaller customers or branch offices, Celestix is introducing the Scorpio X4 platform which will support the increased content filtering requirements of small businesses. Enterprise customers will welcome the throughput-centric Hydrus H2 platform, which will enable Fortune 1000 datacenter environments. As much as sheer power and throughput are often coveted by network administrators, Celestix continues to strike the right balance of power, security and economy by minimizing space and power requirements while producing its trademarked sleek, elegant appliance design.

“We’ve taken the years of experience and expertise invested in Microsoft security and streamlined each individual component in our new MSA appliances. The new features that Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010 provides (such as URL filtering and anti-malware) gave us the perfect product with which to showcase our new platforms,” said Neil Matz, Celestix vice president of product management.

For more information, visit www.celestix.com.

About Celestix

Celestix delivers thousands of security appliances to mid-market organizations and enterprises annually. Founded in 1999, Celestix Networks features offices in Fremont, California; Singapore; Reading, UK and Chennai, India. Celestix has significant presences throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific regions to supplement its channel business. To date, Celestix has enlisted over 500 channel partners worldwide to help serve its end customers. For more information, visit Celestix on the Web at www.celestix.com.