RE: Firewall Utilization

["Noonan, Wesley" <Wesley_Noonan () bmc com>]

As a general statement, utilization is a very tricky thing to quantify
(firewall utilization included). While utilization over time may well be
small, and may present the appearance that someone has "overbought" a piece
of equipment, one must also factor in the requirements for the "high
utilization" scenarios that occur sporadically throughout the
day/week/month/year. In many cases, people buy for that scenario, not the
long term average[1]. It is a case of "people complain at 8:00am when they
can't log in" syndrome[2]. Scaling equipment properly is one of the reasons
that people who can really do a good job of it are worth their weight in
gold (or equipment, depending on your preference).

Sorry this isn't anything "detail related" for you, but I thought that it
might add some perspective. HTH

Wes Noonan, MCSE/CCNA/CCDA/NNCSS
Senior QA Rep.
BMC Software, Inc.
(713) 918-2412
wnoonan () bmc com
http://www.bmc.com

[1] Of course some people just over buy for no good reason. The statement I
made is by no means conclusive or all encompassing. 
[2] Many folks buy huge honking domain controllers that tend to do a whole
lot of nothing outside of an hour or so every morning... but that hour or so
is what it is all about.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joe Keegan [mailto:joe () jjk3 com]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 15, 2002 11:43
> To: Firewall Wizards Mailing List
> Subject: [fw-wiz] Firewall Utilization
>
> I was curious if anyone would be willing to share the average
> utilization (CPU/Mem) of their firewalls and the average amount of
> traffic they deal with.
>
> After working with a few different companies firewalls, I have found
> that most are under utilized and often less expensive models could of
> sufficed. If you are not willing to share your utilization details,
> could you comment on your general experience with firewall utilization.
>
> Thanks
>
> Joe
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Joe Keegan - joe () jjk3 com - (408)242-4588
> SANS GSEC & GCFW, CCSE, CCNA, CCDA, Sun Certified
> _______________________________________________
> firewall-wizards mailing list
> firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com
> http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards
_______________________________________________
firewall-wizards mailing list
firewall-wizards () honor icsalabs com
http://honor.icsalabs.com/mailman/listinfo/firewall-wizards