ServGate serves up flat-priced fixed-configuration box

ServGate, one of the early unified threat management (UTM) vendors is overhauling its pricing in a way that warrants some attention.

It used to sell its EdgeForce appliances a la carte. The appliance and a few features were one price, but the company charged extra for more security applications and still more for hardware to boost performance.

The new pricing is flat. For one price you get a fixed-configuration box loaded with all the software ServGate supplies. ServGate charges a flat license fee that covers all the software and that authorizes as many end users to connect to the boxes as customers want to try.

This certainly makes things a lot simpler for customers trying to figure out what the bottom line cost for the device will be.

The box supports not only firewall and VPN but also virus protection, URL filtering, intrusion detection and spam filtering.

Along with the new pricing comes new hardware, which performs just about as well as its old hardware, so it’s best to think about the upgrade as an attempt to refresh the platform in accordance with newer technology.

One factor that sets ServGate apart from some other UTM vendors is that it packages third-party software in with its hardware. So you don’t buy ServGate anti-virus, it’s McAfee. McAfee also supplies the spam filter, and SurfControl provides URL filtering. ServGate next month adds CA’s anti-virus tool as an option. Firewall, VPN and intrusion prevention are all home-grown.

The bottom line for customers is that these devices are now a bit less expensive than they used to be. The top-of-the-line box costs $14,000, which is $2,000 less than its functionally comparable predecessor. There are five new EdgeForce devices ranging from $2,000 to $14,000.