This test showed that UTM firewalls come in all speeds, shapes and sizes.

One of the appliances we received was simply an off-the-shelf server (IBM’s System x3650). Other devices ranged from very lightly customized (Secure Computing put an IPS accelerator board and a customized BIOS in a Dell box to yield its Sidewinder 2150D) to the heavily engineered chassis found in the Juniper ISG-1000 and the Fortinet FortiGate 3600A.

In general, though, firewall vendors have taken advantage of the enormous boon that Intel has provided in low-cost, high-performance CPUs that are aimed at general-purpose computing. Much of the customization in the devices we received was aimed at increasing port density and value engineering by removing parts, such as graphics adapters, that add cost but not value.

Starting from the ground up, power options abound as the Crossbeam C25, FortiGate 3600A, IBM System x3650, IBM/ISS Proventia MX5010 and Secure Computing Sidewinder 2150D all sport two power supplies, either as an option or as part of the base configuration. Although two power supplies make a system less efficient in its use of electricity (see UTM power-consumption story), they do guard against one of the most common failures: accidentally unplugging the wrong system.

The same is true of slots. With most of these devices coming out of the box with at least four, Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as VLAN support, having expansion slots may be overkill, though it does give you a lot of options. Consider the Juniper SSG-520M, which lets you pick from 16 different expansion cards, including WAN and DSL interfaces. 

CrossBeam and Nokia also offered “failopen” Ethernet cards, which pass traffic through in the event of total system failure. You wouldn’t want “failopen” for a normal firewall, but these can be useful in an IPS deployment where the firewall features are secondary or simply “defense in depth” backups.

Whitepapers

• The Trend from UNIX to Linux in SAP(r) Data Centers
• Getting in Compliance With Government Data Regulations By Leveraging Online Security Technology
• How to Offer the Strongest SSL Encryption
• Maximizing Site Visitor Trust Using Extended Validation SSL
• Seven Steps to Reducing your Security Risk
• The Latest Advancements in SSL Technology

View more SECURITY whitepapers

Webcasts

• The Secure Web Gateway. Mission Critical For Business - Webcast
• Mobile Data Security
• Best Practices for Deploying WAN Optimization for Disaster Recovery
• Solutions to the Toughest IT Challenges in Remote Offices
• Lowering the Cost of Email Archives
• High Availability for SQL Server 2005 Using Array-Based Replication and Host-Based Mirroring Technologies

View more SECURITY webcasts

Special Reports

• The Evolution of Network Security
• Taking Virtualization Up a Notch
• The self-managed network

View more SECURITY special reports