http://smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2008/01/money-savings-and-more-by-comb.html

January 23, 2008

I've written quite a bit about local area networks and only last week IBM announced that it is buying Network Integration.

Critical Links is a very young startup, founded in 2006, that is moving from Portugal to New Jersey. It sells an interesting appliance, edgeBOX, which is an office-in-a-box appliance that provides a complete voice, data and IT solution in a single device for small businesses and enterprise branch offices.

edgeBox has a router, file storage and print, built in voice over the Internet PBX, collaboration tools, WiFi access and built in management and security solutions.

The advantage of an appliance like this is that a) you reduce the number of devices you need to manage (or have managed) b) your costs are reduced c) security is increased due to the minimal number of entry points to your network.