What hardware will be the best ?? SPLAT/UTM1/NOKIA/CrossBeam

[danzaka]

Hi .

I have a QA lab environment that need`s a firewall replacement.
The current firewall is really old … a 5 years old server with SPLAT R55. (The environment has a single firewall with it own management) .

I am considering what should be the replacement hardware( I will also need the licenses because I’m going to use that old firewall for something else .. . so I want to upgrade to R65 ) ?
Nokia (IP 265 or something else .. )
UTM-1 ( 450 series )
SPLAT ( HP Proliant 360 G5 )
CrossBeam .

I have never used the UTM-1 and the crossbeam before so I would be happy to hear some opinions on those products .

The environment traffic is 90% local and some minor traffic to vendor through vpn`s ,there are around 400 pc`s in the environment .
I do not need a very fast system but a reliable one … availability is number one priority for me .

The budget of curse is very tight ( Max $8000 for a single firewall and $12000 for a redundant solution,including licensing) .

I would be happy to hear your opinion for a single firewall environment and a redundant firewall environment .

Fell free to enlighten me ….

[Thorpuse]

From a budget perspective it's very hard to go past the UTM-1 450. The combined HW/SW license makes it very attractive for this kind of site. The boxes are a nice SPLAT-based appliance, easy to use and manage, and very reliable.

Depending on what part of the world you're in, you may also be able to do a deal on a clustered pair of these, to improve your pricing.

[mcnallym]

Second for the UTM-450, avoid the 265 at all costs, it has been End of Sale by Nokia and is very awkward as the flash card is way too small.

We have deployed a couple of the UTM-1 appliances and if you are used to SPLAT you will feel right at home, the advantage of them over the SPLAT route is that HW/SW all one support, also no need to worry about picking the right hardware is compatible with SPLAT.