And hardware VPN appliances still outperform software VPNs. Equipped with chip technology specifically designed for high-speed cryptography and with specialized bus architectures, hardware VPNs can achieve throughput of 70 Mbps and above. But there's more to a VPN than speed. If your VPN is difficult to configure and manage or fails to interoperate with products from other vendors, you'll be tearing your hair out. Issues surrounding rekeying times and ID syntax are still being hammered out.
Issues regarding remote-user management and configuration also are still up in the air.
Before They Enter IDS is rapidly becoming an integral part of the big picture. The dream of the sleepless sentry raising the alarm when suspicious activity is present certainly is seductive. But don't rely on IDS to replace good old human smarts and strong security talent. Configuring an IDS requires in-depth knowledge of your normal network traffic. Combining IDS with firewalls lets you shun attackers automatically, but IDSes are prone to false positives, and shunning can be used as a DOS attack.