On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 4:34 PM, Odhiambo Washington <odhiambo@gmail.com> wrote:
It's because they term the Cisco or other Appliances as "Enterprise". These other ones have "no name" and as such they believe they do not meet "Enterprise" requirements.

2. The other reason is that these FreeBSD/OpenBSD types have got no certifications associated with them like CCXX, etc. They therefore cannot source expertise for these from the market place they way they do for MCXX, CCXX, etc.

For the techies in these organizations, they find it a hassle to cope with, given that in many cases, they can simply outsource the maintenance of the "enterprise" equipment to certain vendors, or even the the manufacturers, so they don't have to start learning and building FreeBSD/OpenBSD/Linux firewalls themselves.

The trick is "Enterprise". You find a way to stick that name to a device and you are in business. Else you are nameless and unknown.

I have to agree... For instance, if you choose to run say, Zimbra, for your mail (it is also in the "Enterprise" category of late), you will have one question, how many people do you know who can support you. It comes down to manpower. We don't have FreeBSD/OpenVPN etc training for the 'masses'. So basically, you are in a narrow support ecosystem.

As someone once put it to me when I suggested going Opensource - "No one ever got fired for buying IBM". Basically, go for a known brand you keep your job should it hit the fan.... 


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With Regards,

Phares Kariuki

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