CompTIA Security+ All-in-One Exam Guide (Exam SY0-301), 3rd Edition, 3rd Edition

All-in-one Security Appliances

Many security vendors offer “all-in-one security appliances,” which are devices that combine multiple functions into the same hardware appliance. Most commonly these functions are firewall, IDS/IPS, and antivirus, although all-in-one appliances can include VPN capabilities, anti-spam, malicious web traffic filtering, antispyware, content filtering, traffic shaping, and so on. All-in-one appliances are often sold as being cheaper, easier to manage, and more efficient than having separate solutions that accomplish each of the functions the all-in-one appliance is capable of performing.