Re: Sharing machine or separate machine?

On 6-7-2010 18:01, Christian Jensen wrote:
> Thanks for the feedback. I do understand that it is pretty vague.
>
> If you have the machine directly on the net and all ports off, is the
> only reason to use a cisco to get the VPN or are there other benefits? I
> come from the M$ world where we used ISA server and I understand the
> positives there but also the downsides too.

The most important reason for me is control. If your server is compromized and you lose control (I actually had a windows server where I watched a hacker move my mouse around), how will you control the server or limit the business impact? It's nice to have a small appliance where you can control what's going in and out, even if your servers are compromized.

>
> With ISA server I got:
> * URL Routing
> * NAT
> * VPN
> * Logging
> * Load Balancing
> * SSL offloading
> and more. I know this forum is not designed specifically for talking
> about Cisco products but does anyone know what the best box for the best
> price to emulate the above features? Is it simply a matter of mixing in
> other Open Source projects and boxes?

We use cisco asa's for NAT, routing (ipv6) and VPN, and I use my balancers for the rest. The balancers run a combination of haproxy, varnish, squid, apache, whatever fits my requirements.

-- 


With kind regards,


Angelo Höngens
systems administrator

MCSE on Windows 2003
MCSE on Windows 2000
MS Small Business Specialist
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