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Maintaining business continuity is critical, no matter what your business. A technological defense against known and unknown information security threats is the key element in any email and internet security policy.

Businesses can choose from a myriad of tools, which fall into three broad categories: appliance, software and Managed Service. Confusion exists in the marketplace about which of the three categories provides the most effective protection, and what the true total costs of ownership are. Here below are some simple guidelines about the three said solutions to assist you in making informed decision that will work for you .

Appliances
The appliance is a hardened server installed between email and internet server and network boundary, requiring set up and configuration to match the settings to the business’s email and internet environment. As download volumes, bandwidth and security needs grow with a business, additional appliances need to be purchased to expand the network security capabilities.
Material must be downloaded onto the corporate server before an appliance can check it for infection. While the appliance is carrying out checks, bandwidth is compromised and systems are slowed.

With appliances, in-house information security expertise is essential to monitor malware trends, adjust appliance settings, configure updates, maintain and manage appliances, manage demands on storage and bandwidth and provide support to users. The total cost of ownership of an appliance solution invariably extends beyond the initial purchase price to include the cost of more than one dedicated, specialized IT specialist – which usually translates into a high opportunity cost for appliance solutions. It is apparent that while most appliances does not offer real time solution as they depend on going updates from the internet server, their end cost are also very expensive especially with a growing network and day to day maintenance cost.

Software
Licensed security software is installed between the email and Internet server and the network boundary, which often requires specific server hardware and software, adding to the infrastructure complexity. The effectiveness of a software solution is then totally reliant on it being kept up to date with the latest signatures to combat the escalating tide of emerging threats and unknown attacks. This presents significant ongoing total cost of ownership increases.

The public nature of software solutions can even work to undermine their effectiveness, as cyber criminals continually evolve their malware to work around security software.

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