Will iBoss Secure Web Gateway meet your organization’s needs?
With the number of Secure Web Gateway options on the market, such as iBoss, it is important to review your options fully before making a selection. The technology is constantly changing and sources like Gartner are not always the best option as many of the leaders and rising contenders have outdated technologies. When making a large and long term investment it is important to fully review your options. While iBoss is a strong solution, there are a few concerns with selecting them as your primary Secure Web Gateway solution.
iBoss was founded in San Diego and has a presence in North America but has very little global presence. If you are located outside of the USA, or have offices in other countries, this could be very problematic as their Support, Partner, and Distribution networks as not thoroughly vetted and you may be left with issues configuring and maintaining their devices. If you are a commercial entity (Financial, Healthcare, Etc.) or are looking for solutions to fit a government entity you may want to review other options. It is also unknown how well the solution will perform in highly available environments that financial, healthcare, and other markets require.
iBoss also has some very valid concerns from a technology standpoint as well. iBoss also does not support IPSec, which is a very major point Gartner highlights when selecting a Secure Web Gateway solution. Another major problem area is many of their security features depend on licensed technologies, primarily from the company Lastline. Because of this the long term viability of the security features integrated with iBoss is uncertain and reliant on Lastline’s innovation and success. iBoss also only has a very limited market share in the K-12 and has not proven their value or usability in other markets.
iBoss does have some strong points, including high throughput speeds. Be advised that enabling additional features such as SSL inspection, AV scanning and malware protection, and other advanced features can put a strain on any device. It is highly recommended that you thoroughly test iBoss with all of the features enabled that you plan to use long term to determine if throughput speeds will meet your demand. Additional functionality like bandwidth shaping and MDM functionality are available from iBoss as well at an additional cost. Be warned that adding additional licenses for these modules can cause the recurring subscription costs to grow rapidly, so be prepared for high long term costs and budget appropriately. While the ability to consolidate multiple solutions into iBoss’ single platform can be valuable, better and more cost effective solutions are available from other vendors and you are not getting truly best in breed functionality for any single solution under the iBoss platform.
While iBoss has a strong feature set special care needs to be taken to ensure their solution meets the needs of your organization and the technologies. Special consideration needs to be taken with iBoss’ pricing model to ensure the long term costs meet your organization's goals and needs. Long term viability due to licensed technologies can also be a heavy concern, and must be taken into your organizations long term goals as well.
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