Stories by Joel Snyder

First Look: Amazon Echo: Novelty item or ready-for-prime-time part of your digital life?

Our Amazon Echo, a voice-controlled appliance--for want of a better word--arrived on May 17 and we've been using it all week. As Prime members, we paid $100 for ours, but the list price is $200. While some parts are beautifully done, the information services at the back end have a long way to go before the Echo is more than a novelty.

Written by Joel Snyder01 June 15 20:09

Review: Dell WYSE delivers Android-on-a-stick

Thin clients aren't very exciting, and for a reason: they're designed to allow remote access to servers, usually with a Citrix, Microsoft, or VMware client. The folks at Dell WYSE have spiced up the category by building a thin client on top of Android, and getting it down to a form factor only slightly larger than a USB memory stick.

Written by Joel Snyder19 May 14 20:04

Riverbed wins 7-vendor WAN optimization test

As applications move to the cloud, network managers are seeing increasing requirements to optimize and manage WAN connections. Most enterprises have migrated to web-based applications and make heavy use of Internet services for day-to-day business. All of this makes network performance a key factor for productivity and end-user satisfaction.

Written by Joel Snyder11 Nov. 13 12:13

Cisco impresses with first crack at next-gen firewall

When we tested next-generation firewalls last May, at least one important security vendor wasn't there: Cisco, because they weren't ready to be tested. Now that the ASA CX next-generation firewall has had a year to mature, we put the product through its paces, using the same methodology as our last NGFW test.

Written by Joel Snyder17 June 13 11:23

Review: HP's new thin client raises the bar

Thin clients can't be cracked or hacked; they don't have fans or disks to fail; they don't need to be patched nearly as often as Windows; they don't draw much power; and they don't cost a whole lot of money to buy or maintain.

Written by Joel Snyder11 March 13 11:23

SonicWall stands tall in SSL decryption testing

If one of the main advantages of a next-generation firewall is application and protocol identification and control, then SSL decryption is a basic requirement. We looked at the SSL decryption capabilities of the next-generation firewalls to see how well they would be able to discover applications, protocols, and URLs hidden within encrypted connections.

Written by Joel Snyder07 May 12 14:39

How we tested next-generation firewalls

We tested next generation firewalls by looking at seven separate areas that we felt would be important to network managers trying to deploy these products in enterprise networks.

Written by Joel Snyder07 May 12 14:39

Palo Alto next-gen firewall stacks up well

Palo Alto Networks has bet everything on being a next-generation firewall. Without the next-generation hook, Palo Alto has little chance at breaking into the established world of firewalls, and they've done a good job at defining the category on their own terms.

Written by Joel Snyder07 May 12 14:39

Fortinet has highest catch rate in IPS testing

We tested the intrusion prevention capabilities of each of the next-generation firewalls to determine how well they work and how the IPS integrates with system management.

Written by Joel Snyder07 May 12 14:39

Vulnerability analyzers offer Web scanning as an option

Web scanning is different from vulnerability scanning because it looks for bugs in the Web apps themselves, rather than in the software installed on the Web server. For example, all of the vulnerability scanners told us about an old embedded system on our network vulnerable to a cross-site scripting attack because of an old version of PHP. 

Written by Joel Snyder20 June 11 14:56

Vulnerability analysis tools add compliance features

Compliance is a natural extension of a vulnerability analysis tool. Normal vulnerability scanning includes searching for unpatched systems, unprotected directories and other errors in configuration.

Written by Joel Snyder20 June 11 14:56

How we tested vulnerability analyzers

We developed a test methodology and evaluation criteria in six main areas, including results reporting, product controls and manageability, scan results, vulnerability workflow features, interoperability, and updates and protocol support.

Written by Joel Snyder20 June 11 14:56

Cisco's NAC goes off track, customers taken aback

As the most important supplier of network infrastructure to enterprises, Cisco's NAC products are a natural point of curiosity for network managers. Unfortunately, though, Cisco's approach to NAC has been riddled with in-fighting, false starts, delayed product releases, and a good dose of chaos and confusion.

Written by Joel Snyder24 May 10 15:31
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