Words like “integrated” and “centralized” have been used to describe application software solutions for some years now, often because of marketing messaging that implies more interoperability than the given technology can actually provide to the business customer. The terms are broad enough to be almost meaningless in some instances. In the field of IT security, the sheer range of tools and techniques in the hacker or virus writer’s armory that one must guard against has driven up the number of solutions required to prevent attacks.

This has increased the cost of managing these solutions, to where the cost of management typically makes up over half the total cost of ownership (TCO). Reducing this significant cost is achievable, as this paper details.