I recently made an important self-discovery: I have an addiction to appliances.
Let me explain that this addiction is three-fold. First, I love the compactness and ease (at least it is supposed to be easy) of inserting an appliance into my network and having it already setup to do what I want it to do. Sure, I have to configure it, but at least I don’t have to build a server, then harden it, then apply all the patches, then, install the software, blah, blah, blah… It just makes things easier. Second, I love the web-based administration most of these appliances have. I hate client-server based admin apps. They just suck the resources right out of your management station. Third, I am a sucker for a dashboard. Nine times out of ten, these devices have a cool administration dashboard that gives you a LOT of info on a single startup page, and that page (if developed correctly) allows you to drill down from there.
I really need to look at this. My administrative costs are shooting sky-high, even with a security event management appliance (yes, another appliance!).
Sheesh…
Vet
