Network Appliances, they’re expensive. Or are they?
Having worked in the I.T. field for quite some time I have seen my fair share of hardware and software products that have enabled my clients to perform their daily business more easily and with greater efficiency. I have installed SonicWall appliances, Windows servers ranging from NT, 2000, 2003 and even the latest 2008, setup WANs and LANs ,and I have had good ideas for all kinds of different business solutions. It wasn’t until recently that I realized just how much more one could do with open source.
Lets compare two major products in the networking category: the SonicWall and the Untangle application. They both act as routers for a network to provide internet but they also perform complex functions to protect the network.
It has proven difficult to explain to business owners and CIOs the benefits of open source applications with low to no overhead costs. They have been skeptical of the efficiency of something that is free versus a brand name product.
SonicWall is one of the global leaders in high end networking equipment. Their SonicWall PRO 3060 is a great product to compare to the Untangle box even though Untagle does not provide hardware with it’s free product (lame attempt at a joke).
Untangle comes as a stand-alone server and requires a PC with at least 2 network cards to work properly. The product itself is free and can be installed on virtually any machine new or old (newer machines = better performance).
SonicWall PRO 3060 ranges anywhere from $900 to $3500 depending on which products you choose to install in the system.
If price alone swayed you towards the Untangle box you should also know that Untangle comes with two packages that you can install. The Open Source package and the Professional Package. The open source one is free but boy does it pack some goodies in it. It allows you to do Spam filtering, gateway anti-virus, spam blocker, phishing protection, VPN and more! Just the OpenVPN portion of it is an incredible deal for the low low price of $0. It uses SSL-based VPN that is both secure and fast for encrypted data transmission.
The Untangle community is very active and provides constant updates to the software with features and improvements that continue to make it a strong competitor to the paid counterparts. You can check out untangle at http://www.untangle.com
So what we should take from this slight comparison is that not all free software is junk software. Projects like Linux or Untangle are respectable and highly successful examples of open source applications that have made it to primetime in the tech industry. More and more businesses are realizing the potential of open source applications and switching over. Just savings on the licenses of paid products makes the switch over a worthwhile project. Whether businesses like it or not the Open Source movement is here to stay and it gets stronger and more essential every day.
By: Mirand Lamani