When first having bandwidth problems, I was wondering if purchasing a proxy server (like a Cisco Content Engine) and a bandwidth limiting/packet shaping (al la Packeteer) would be what I would have to do. I was also looking at a $20,000+ price tag for these two boxes, and was going to have to deep-six my plans for a SAN and some server upgrades to do so. So I started researching the alternatives, and finally decided on trying Squid on Linux as a cheap start. It works great, and I’m glad I gave it a shot.
However I did run across another interesting product during my research – Lightspeed Systems Network Traffic Management. The software (or appliance if you so desire) claims to have:
- Extensive monitoring and reporting Know exactly what’s running on your network
- Content filtering Use our 15+ million site database
- Spam blocking Accurately detect spam with 11 lines of defense
- Security Protect your network from spyware and zero-hour attacks
- Bandwidth management Prioritize mission-critical traffic
(market speak directly from their website….)
All of this for less than 1/2 of what the other products would have cost me – and about 1/3 if you factor the cost of my Barracuda spam firewall into the solution (which I this is my best purchase in the last year). I actually looked into Barracuda’s spyware solution, and this software costs about the same as I was quoted for the Barracuda Spyware Firewall.
Like Barracuda, they will send out an eval unit for you to test – and mine is scheduled to arrive today. I have set apart some time Tuesday afternoon to get it online (taking a long weekend off – yay!) and will see how it does, and I’ll let you know.