Re: Number of devices per engineer

Greetings!

On 23 Nov 2005 10:31:11 -0000
dominic.walton@colt.net wrote:
> I am looking at a strategy review for the take on of a number of
> firewalls and am looking for industry recognised figures for the
> number of firewalls one engineer can manage. 

The only hard number I know is: if you need more than 1 engineer (or 3
in 24h shift) per firewall, you have a problem.

Everything else is: "it depends". Especially on: how high is automation,
how intense the monitoring, how much user/customer interaction is done?

One or two systems per engineer can be valid on a fast-changing entry
system for a high visibly target site that is monitored automatically
and manually as well as constantly tuned for omptimum throughput. This
usually is more typical for enterprise firewalls acting as central
choke/QoS-spokes with multiple networks and gateways attached.

Some hundred or thousand systems managed by only one engineer can be
valid if you have a more or less static setup that is automatically
monitored, all similarily (simple) configured and centrally managed, and
only if the admin is to be acting on-call or on-alert only. This is
typical for device-attached firewalls or VPN devices connecting lots of
small office (like travel or insurance companies).

Bye

Volker


-- 

Volker Tanger    http://www.wyae.de/volker.tanger/
--------------------------------------------------
vtlists@wyae.de                    PGP Fingerprint
378A 7DA7 4F20 C2F3 5BCC  8340 7424 6122 BB83 B8CB