Businesses tend to prefer appliances or software for new solution deployments. There are many reasons why from ease of deployment, to complete ownership of the host and the application. Unfortunately, sometimes departmental whims are not always the best solution for the company. There are several factors from deployment to security policies that may warrant a different choice.
As a part of the decision and justification process, this simple matrix enables you to prioritize your requirements and answer questions commonly overlooked during product selection. In addition, answering the questions first can help an eEye Security professional properly architect your solution and provide a more accurate quote for deployment costs. It is important to note that if you are only looking for external scanning, then a SaaS solution is your best choice for regulatory compliance initiatives like PCI. There is no reason to complete the matrix unless business requirements dictate external and internal scanning. Then, choosing the best internal deployment model makes sense.
Please score each business criteria below and grade each of them on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = low, 5 = high). Then total each column. The highest score will provide your business the guidance necessary for the correct solution.
| Grade | Appliance | Grade | Software |
| Rapid Deployment | Lower Cost for Licensing Only | ||
| Easier Maintenance and Lower TCO | Flexible Deployment with Software Scanners including Virtual Machines | ||
| Easier Procurement Process | Limited Raised Floor Rack Space | ||
| Hardened Appliance with Minimal Risk Surface | Existing Server Reallocation and Resource Sharing | ||
| Geographical Deployment | Unlimited Scalability | ||
| Different Budgets, Hardware Only | Different Budgets, Software Only | ||
| Optimized Policy and Server for Operations, No Tweaking | Policy Limiting New Hardware on a Network | ||
| Hardened and Embedded Operating System | Licensing of Operating System and Database (if needed) | ||
| Policy Limiting New Software on a Network | Non-Standard Architectural Requirements and Ports | ||
| Physical Infrastructure Preferred | Private Cloud Initiatives (Virtualized Software Deployment) | ||
| TOTALS | TOTALS |
For more information on how eEye solutions can meet your Unified Vulnerability Management needs, please click here. Our solutions are flexible to meet your deployment requirements andeEye can provide software, appliances, SaaS, or even assistance for your virtual machines to stream line your implementation.
