The game is changing for appliance manufacturers

Advances by Intel and AMD in compute power with multi-processors and management with virtualization have shifted the game for security vendors who are bringing their products to market as a high performance appliance. It is becoming increasingly harder to justify large engineering investments in custom-built ASICs or hardware that is not built on a standard platform. Just check out the specs of Intel's vPro capability and imagine how security vendors can use these features in next generation appliances.

One significant trend in appliance manufacturing will be the growth in virtual appliances. This makes it easier for vendors to create an environment that can easily be embedded in a standard Intel or AMD-based platform. These virtual machines can take advantage of multi-processors for performance and trusted execution environments for security. Virtual appliances will shift technical priorities from hardware engineering expertise to software functionality, management, and product distribution.

Appliances have customer benefits that are not going away any time soon. They avoid the headaches of software installation and configuration, they are easier to securely deploy in a dynamic network, and fewer organizations are involved in the purchase and support decisions. However appliances do require vendors to manage a distribution channel for delivery of a physical product and provide skilled remote support to keep help desk calls from whittling away the profits.

Lost in last week's security news was the acquisition of Alliance Systems by Network Engines. Most people don't recognize these names because they provide the behind-the-scenes custom manufacturing services that allow a software-based vendor to deliver their products as an appliance. Creation of an appliance from a software kit, and unified management of the software and hardware of the appliance will become differentiators. This new company, along with competitors such as Dell and IBM, are well positioned to help vendors produce quality appliances that can be managed in an enterprise network.