Greg Young

A lot of the datasheets for network security products have made it really hard for customers to conduct an apple-to-apple comparison.  I’m not talking about the overall IT industry practices with datasheets.  In the last 24 months, especially in the areas of firewall and IPS throughput,  a number of companies have started listing uninspected port throughput as the rating for the appliance, or seemingly employing a random number generator. 

This usually is a sign that the vendor has lost sight of their customers and gotten into a spiral with competitors.   Their competitors may be scared for a day or two until they get their product into their lab, but then they have a legitimate criticism they can use in sales. And guess who is grumpiest – customers. 

If a customer wants to buy 100mbps of firewall, they want to look at 100 mbps products.  Anything else only leaves them disappointed. 

Vendors – don’t apologize for specs, be tempted to nudge up some ratings, or list the port type as the throughput.  Customers – reward honest specs,  and push back if you are sold a box that underdelivers.  And, Gartner customer, call us before you make a netsec buy and I can help make sure your short list has the right products and models on it.

Caveat datasheetum.