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Looking at purchasing an ASA 5200 and curious as to what the AIP SSM add-in does?<br />
<br />
Cisco's site is as cryptic as always... a good site to browse if you already know the answer.<br />
<br />
So basically, what is it, what does it do for me and what can't I do without it?
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Looking at purchasing an ASA 5200 and curious as to what the AIP SSM add-in does?

Cisco's site is as cryptic as always... a good site to browse if you already know the answer.

So basically, what is it, what does it do for me and what can't I do without it?

AIP SSM - What does it do?

Hardware-based firewalls provide more sophisticated protection for inbound and outbound traffic than the simple Windows software firewall or the basic NAT firewalls found in routers. These devices implement techniques such as stateful packet inspection, deep packet inspection, and content filtering; and may include built-in antivirus and anti-malware protection.

Hardware Firewalls

Cisco PIX is a dedicated hardware firewall appliance; the Cisco Adaptive Security Appliance (ASA) is a firewall and anti-malware security appliance that provides unified threat management and protection the PIX does not. Other Cisco devices and systems include routers, switches, storage networking, wireless and the software and hardware for PIX Firewall Manager (PFM), PIX Device Manager (PDM) and Adaptive Security Device Manager (ASDM).

Cisco

Software firewalls, also known as host-based firewalls, provide a layer of software on one host that controls network traffic in and out of that single machine. Most operating systems now include firewall software, but many available software firewalls include central distribution, antivirus systems and disaster recovery.