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.