The options are broadening for all-in-one devices for the branch office. But the question is not so much whether to use these tools - it’s whose tools to use and when?
Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner for Nemertes Research, where she develops and manages research projects and cost models, conducts strategic seminars, and advises key clients. She currently serves as CFO, as well. Contact her.
This week, Nortel will make its secure router product line available (based on technology from the Tasman acquisition). Last month, NetDevices started selling its services gateway for small branch offices, and Juniper announced its unified threat management devices.
Vendors are rightfully focusing on creating, enhancing, and sizing consolidated devices for branch offices. As we speak to IT executives, we see many shifting their focus from the data center to the branch office. Their data center consolidation projects are well underway or winding down, and now they need to focus on how to deliver predictable application and network performance to branch office employees.
Back to the questions at hand: When does it make sense to use consolidated devices? For any new location, it’s a no-brainer. Like newer technologies such as VoIP, the business case is compelling. Rather than installing a separate firewall, router, switch, network optimization device, and VPN, companies can save on hardware, as well as the operational costs for installation and ongoing management.
NetDevice’s SG-4, for example, performs firewall, IDS/IPS, VPN, switching, and routing functions for a list price of about $8,000. When totaled as point products, capital costs could be $10,000 or more, depending on brands or models. Separately, each point product would take about four to six hours to install - that's two to three times longer than it would take to install a consolidated device. It doesn’t take long to see the value.
Browse Newsletter categories: Branch Office Best Practices | Convergence | High Speed LANs | Identity Management | IT Careers and Training | IT Leadership | Linux | Messaging | Network Optimization | Network/Systems Management | New Data Center Strategies | Novell NetWare Tips | Optical Networking | Outsourcing | Security Strategies | Servers | Service Provider News Report | Small Business Technology | Storage in the Enterprise | Technology Executive | View from The Edge | Virus and Bug Patch Alert | VORTEX Digest | VPNs | Web Applications | Wide Area Networking | Windows Networking Strategies | Wireless in the Enterprise |
|
Does Verizon's Voyager stack up to the iPhone? |
5 IT skills that won't boost your salary 
[1,407]
Women 4 times more likely than men to cough up personal info [589]
Japan's 10 funniest tech-related commercials [Videos] [407]
Throwing away a promo CD is "unauthorized distribution"? [1,265]
Adults too quick to dismiss educational video games [682]
Attack of the iPhone clones [Slideshow] [578]
10 things IT needs to know about AJAX [1,258]
This Year's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries [Slideshow] [409]
Emerson Network Power and its Liebert power and cooling technologies increase IT system flexibility and availability, while lowering the total cost of ownership.
Learn how to optimize power and cooling in network access rooms to keep equipment operating at peak performance and proactively monitor changes.
Read about Sequent and how they implemented a new data center to meet current requirements while easily scaling to support projected growth.
Reduce cooling system energy costs by 30 to 45 percent through five data center efficiency strategies.
