Security appliances

By By Ambrose McNevin, IT Pro, 24 May 2006 at 12:16

What is the firewall through speed/filter flow rate? Another potential bottleneck. From 108 MBPS is average low end to multigigabit filtering at the high end. You don't want lots of traffic backing up.

Does it have remote management capabilities? Can I manage it across the network? How is this done - command line or http interface?

Does it have any wireless capabilities? Do you have a wireless network? Does it have a built-in wireless router? Will it connect directly to a wireless router?

Does it offer threat rating? Some appliances offer threat rating on packets they inspect. You don't want to lose valuable data because it has been wrongly categorised.

What protocols does it support? SMTP: to protect email traffic? HTTP: to protect web surfing/browsing? FTP: to protect file downloads? POP3: to protect users accessing web-based email accounts?

Other questions you may want to consider before you buy

Does the security appliance have one particular strength and a series of add-ons?
Is there a risk that an appliance will introduce a single point of failure on the network?
Appliances are supposed to offer a reduced management overhead and less complexity, but can this be easily quantified?

Appliances are good at securing your network's perimeter, but what about inside the perimeter?
What is my security policy and how does this appliance fit with it?