The inline IPS appliance, firewall or VPN gateway you're considering spending tens of thousands of dollars deploying is supposed to be a Rolls-Royce, but it may be an Edsel. Meanwhile, the business people are pressing for quick implementations of new protocols and homegrown apps that haven't been properly scrubbed for security flaws.

Nervous? You should be. The process of scrubbing products and kicking system tires for bugs and security seems endless: You endure nerve-wracking testing and patching drills; vendors work out their bugs with each release, but the pressure is on you. Without production-grade security testing, how can you be sure your networks will run safely and smoothly when the rubber hits the road?