Symantec™ Security Gateways Reference Guide - Sawmill

Chapter 10Ensuring availabilityThis chapter includes the following topics:■■■■■■Limitations of non-clustered solutionsSymantec’s clustered approachCluster componentsStateful failoverLoad balancingCluster administrationLimitations of non-clustered solutionsSingle-machine drawbacksSecurity gateway uptime is critical. It is important to ensure that all personnel that make use of yourcompany’s network can perform their jobs, and are not hampered by loss of network connectivity. At aminimum, loss of the security gateway is a major inconvenience. What’s worse is that it can result in lostproductivity or revenue.There are problems that can occur with any security gateway. Often, these problems concern allocation ofmachine resources (CPU time and memory) and redundancy. Companies of all sizes can encounter theseproblems.Companies with smaller network budgets often look for a single machine solution to address the issue ofnetwork security. However, a single machine is susceptible in several areas.Single point of failureIf the security gateway is down, external users no longer have access to internal resources, and internalusers are cut off from the rest of the world. Because of the importance of the security gateway, everythingelse must be dropped to resolve the issue.Possible bottleneckEspecially in smaller companies, the security gateway is often tasked to perform additional roles over andabove the role of network protection. As companies grow and the demand for bandwidth and processingpower increases, a strong security gateway now may not be adequate to do the job in the future.Dedicated administrationBecause the security gateway plays such a critical role in your company environment, it may require adedicated administrator.