Appliances are in. They’re easy to integrate, simple to procure and implement, and take the complexity out of a lot of new hardware or software implementations by having everything configured in the box (as it were).

The downside is that appliances only do one thing, and they do it on industry standard hardware. If you want something a bit more customised, you’re back to a fully-fledged, multiple-month, specify, procure, install, integrate, test and implement cycle (depending on exactly what it is you’re trying to add to your ICT infrastructure).