PIX firewall blade

[jcpark]

Anybody know what are the advantages and disadvantages of using a pix firewall blade on a cisco 6509 vs a standalone pix 535 from a security design perspective. This is for a very secure site. I know the blade has better performance. Any other key advantages or disadvantages?

Thanks.

James

[gfullage]

Data sheet is here:

http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/cc/pd/si/casi/ca6000/ps4452/prodlit/fwsm_ds.htm

Basically performance and the fact you can have 100 interfaces are the key benefits, plus you don't need extra rack space. The software is basically the same so no real benefit there, in fact the FWSM doesn't support every PIX command so that could be a disadvantage, although minor. Command differeneces are detailed here:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/partner/products/hw/switches/ps708/products_installation_and_configuration_guide_chapter09186a0080159cb1.html