Virtual v’s Physical Appliances – 4 Compelling Reasons for Change
Scalability and Mobility - part IV
Mobility is absolutely essential for the proper operation of an application group. It can be next to impossible to move a running user base from one physical appliance to another without significant down-time. In the case of mail antispam appliances, user configuration must be migrated, along with live mail data and quarantine files, black lists, white lists, and other elements of the configuration. For a large group of users, these characteristics are changing in a non-deterministic way and at an alarming frequency. Small companies and large alike will often schedule appliance transitions months in advance. The new appliance will be deployed for a month or two while the administrator tries to find a window to migrate the user base. For most companies, these windows fall on weekends when demand is low. However, many organizations find it difficult to find quiet periods even on weekends. Again, mail is a good example. Users will often check their email on the road, from home, and even on vacation. The unavailability of the mail system for even two days across a weekend can be problematic. Removing the mail security appliance from the picture can result in clogged mailboxes in a matter of hours.
