Dangers of all-in-one appliances

The recent launch by cisco of its "all-in-one" adaptive security appliance (ASA) raises the question again about "best of breed".

Today, most security consultants advice against using one device to offer all your protection services, saying that this idea goes against the grain of multi-layered security and the risks imposed by the one appliance being compromised.

So today, pretty much all of our customers go for "best of breed" point purchases. Now remember Network Associates failed with their all-in-one approach a few years back, then Symantec picked up the flag 2 years ago and have been preaching the all-in-one appliance story since then, but they also really have not seen the traction they would like. Now with Cisco and Juniper announcing their all-in-one wares (much to the delight of Symantec I would imagine) things are likely to get interesting.

Attached is a link to a thought-provoking article that discusses the issues of "best of breed" versus "best of suite", no doubt we will come up against them when talking to our clients about this emerging trend in the market.