John has posted a new mini-whitepaper on DMZ, here is an excerpt:

My science teacher in High School once said ‘There is only 99 ways to skin a cat, after that you just start repeating things in a different order’. My teacher used to display ‘Fred the cat’, He was skinned and wired up on a piece of wood, for the entire class to see. After examine Fred, I was able to tell how he started the process; the spot on the nick in the fur was the hint to me. I had figured out 50 or so ways to skin the cats, talking and sounding it out with friends at lunch and in class, but the way he did it was completely different, he started with the cut under the neck, right below the chin. He took a complete different approach then I was planning to, but made me question things. Since then I have always question things, looking for the best ways, and then exploring all the other ways to do something. This line has always driven the way I look at things. When it comes to DMZ designs there are many camps, Single layer configuration, Dual layer configurations, and Separated zone configurations, on and on. These are the basics, with many twists that add many more design possibilities. I want to find a solution that not only was best of breed, but flexible and easy to use giving us maximum security and bang for the buck. While playing with the designs and the components, ‘Fred the cat’ came to mind. Some call it perspective, some call it ‘thinking outside the box’, and I call it ’skinning the cat’.