Cisco faces a new challenge to its branch-office security offerings. SonicWall is coming out with a new appliance that handles bidirectional 1Gbps throughput for its unified threat management platform that lacks some of the routing, WAN optimization and VoIP support that Cisco's ISR branch-office gear supplies. But SonicWall says its box performs at 1Gbps with all its security features turned on - something Cisco doesn't lay claim to with the ISR. The question is what balance of price, architectural efficiency and level of security customers will want.

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