People get pretty religious sometimes about what is or isn't a security appliance. The benefits, or at least perceptions, are significant:
1) Easy to deploy. Everything has been preconfigured. Just plug it in and it works.
2) Easy to support. No need to manage the underlying OS and database or other utilities.
There is also a perception that the appliance provides enhanced performance. This is sometimes, but not always the case. Appliances have the following form factors:
1) custom chips and/or hardware
2) custom software (like OS or custom drivers) installed on hardware
3) software app shipped on a box
4) software appliance (all the software needed, including operating system, you pick the box)
You must understand the nature of the appliance in order to determine what the strengths are.
10:52:44 PM 
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