8. Yoggie Pico Pro: Conclusions and Recommendations

The Yoggie Pico Pro security appliance services enterprise networks, whereas the Yoggie Pico Personal best suits the consumer market. The Pico Pro retails for about $200 (with street prices as low as $130), while the plain Pico retails for $149 (street prices just under $100). The differences between the two products primarily involve the presence or absence of enterprise features: Pro offers VPN support and lets organizations host their own management servers; plain-vanilla supports neither of these things. Both versions are also subject to recurring annual $30 subscription charges for product updates and access to Yoggie service and support.

Although the Pico may appeal most strongly to the mobile computing crowd, there is something to be said for putting all of your security eggs into this one particular basket. As a single-source security solution, the Pico does make a strong candidate for company notebook computers assigned to mobile workers even though it also draws on USB power (and the notebook battery) for full-time operation. As with anything, you must weigh its costs and benefits carefully and reach your own conclusions, but there’s no denying that the Yoggie Pico Pro offers an appealing, single-source solution for all of today’s pressing information security needs and includes a sound security architecture along with its frequent updates and automated maintenance facilities.

We also found the Pico interesting because it didn’t appear to adversely affect Internet access or perceived responsiveness. Even though we measured an increase from tens to hundreds of milliseconds in latency figures, this was more than offset by the modest 10-20% boosts in download speed systems enjoyed when the Pico was in use. For convenience and for peace of mind, we like the Pico enough that after we surrender the Pico to the Tom’s Guide central office for further testing, that we plan to purchase one for each of our own notebook PCs.