Hello,
I was hoping to get a little insight on the all-in-one network edge security devices that are becoming more commonplace. I intend on recommending them to a few small businesses that I support to complement their existing protective measures. There appears to be an enormous price range for similarly specced devices aimed at similar markets, all offering as part of an annual subscription, regular updates to their internal firmware and malware signatures.
I get the impression that one of the most significant differences lies between those devices that do their processing locally and those that offload most of the processing to external services. The devices I've been looking at recently are the Netgear ProSecure UTM series which appear to fall into the latter category. I've encountered one device that appears to do its processing locally manufactured by a company called Netbox however both the device and annual subscription are literally ten times the cost of the Netgear alternative. $1200 to $1600 per year for a small business with just two or three employees is a very difficult sell given that a similarly specced device can be obtained for as little as one tenth of that.
I have four main concerns behind the idea of continuously communicating with off-site validation and filtering services:
1) Latency will be introduced to most network operations.
2) Monthly bandwidth consumption will be increased by a significant factor.
3) Private data will be transmitted offsite, potentially in violation of privacy legislation.
4) Loss of communication with the offsite services will reduce the effectiveness of the device.
My questions boil down to:
1) Why the price variation for the same target market? What are the distinguishing factors?
2) Are my concerns about offsite processing valid?
3) Is anyone aware of more reasonably priced options that also do their processing locally?
My apologies for being verbose and my thanks in advance.
I was hoping to get a little insight on the all-in-one network edge security devices that are becoming more commonplace. I intend on recommending them to a few small businesses that I support to complement their existing protective measures. There appears to be an enormous price range for similarly specced devices aimed at similar markets, all offering as part of an annual subscription, regular updates to their internal firmware and malware signatures.
I get the impression that one of the most significant differences lies between those devices that do their processing locally and those that offload most of the processing to external services. The devices I've been looking at recently are the Netgear ProSecure UTM series which appear to fall into the latter category. I've encountered one device that appears to do its processing locally manufactured by a company called Netbox however both the device and annual subscription are literally ten times the cost of the Netgear alternative. $1200 to $1600 per year for a small business with just two or three employees is a very difficult sell given that a similarly specced device can be obtained for as little as one tenth of that.
I have four main concerns behind the idea of continuously communicating with off-site validation and filtering services:
1) Latency will be introduced to most network operations.
2) Monthly bandwidth consumption will be increased by a significant factor.
3) Private data will be transmitted offsite, potentially in violation of privacy legislation.
4) Loss of communication with the offsite services will reduce the effectiveness of the device.
My questions boil down to:
1) Why the price variation for the same target market? What are the distinguishing factors?
2) Are my concerns about offsite processing valid?
3) Is anyone aware of more reasonably priced options that also do their processing locally?
My apologies for being verbose and my thanks in advance.
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