Appliances, appliances everywhere

Today's network managers are inundated by dozens or even hundreds of appliances across data centers and branch offices, but sometimes, the sheer number of these specialized devices can create a management nightmare that outweighs the benefits. One of the reasons appliances are so prolific in enterprises today is because of the penchant for organizations to buy software packaged with specialized network appliances. Although these pre-configured appliances are easy to use and troubleshoot, as well as easy to deploy, so many single-function devices can take up rack space and configuration and security can become unmanageable. And when branch offices get in on the act, it gets even more complicated, because there is limited IT staff. It's best to limit branch offices to a handful of devices. But be careful: force-fitting too many functions into fewer appliances will create different challenges for network managers. All-in-one solutions, such as the branch-office-in-a-box that combines wired and wireless connectivity, security, acceleration, communications and remote management capabilities, are a few years away. Meanwhile, the trend toward multifunction devices is underway as vendors like Fortinet, Secure Computing and Symantec couple security features such as firewalling, VPN and antivirus with monitoring and reporting capabilities. In the acceleration market, companies like Blue Coat Systems, Juniper Networks and Riverbed have combined WAN-optimization capabilities, such as caching and compression with wide-area file services functions.

Learn more about the proliferation of network appliances:
- read the article at Computerworld New Zealand