Examiner – All-in-one network device–winner or house of cards?

Examiner’s Jeffrey Fritz posted a story on June 25 concerning all-in-one networking devices: “True, the all-in-one box concept does have its advantages. There is the potential for less finger pointing because one vendor (Cisco  or Vyatta in this case) supports all the functions. There is a potential for energy and space savings as one device can now do the work that multiple devices performed in the past. You have less purchase orders to sign, and fewer devices to manage in your network. But not all is nirvana with such an all-in-one approach. Your network now has one whopping single point of failure. Should your magic box suffer a major failure, its services and applications will all come crashing down like a house of cards. Plus you lose best of breed. Now, you have to settle for whatever comes in the all-in-one box.”

Read the full story here.