All three had most of the features I wanted. I was familiar with the iPrism from a previous job, and really liked it best at first but of the 3 it was the most expensive in the long run. I know the expression that “you get what you pay for” but then again sometime you pay more for a reputation and name than a solid product. The price for the yearly updates were more than double than the price updates AND instant replacement of the Barracuda.
When I first started looking the Cuda had virtually no reporting and AD integration was iffy… but I already have a Barracuda Spam Filter on our network…

(sorry, side note here: the Barracuda Spam Filter is a very cool and helpful gadget. I have never found one that blocks 100% of Spam and anyone who says theirs does is a flat out LIAR…however this one gets so close it is scary)

…and being familiar with the interface was a plus. The more detailed reporting and much better AD integration were promised and by the time I was ready to buy, had came up to the standards I wanted.
The Cymphonix was, honestly, the most interesting and comprehensive option of the three. It honestly did too much. The reporting was very detailed and it had some very cool network traffic analysis features. The catch with the Cymphonix was the way it worked with Terminal Services and Citrix I was going to get charged virtually doubled the per seat cost. Simply put, this means that for my 200 concurrent users I would need 400 “seats” (licenses). Then again the sales guy I talked too read off a script pretty much, which is the most annoying thing to someone who actually knows about technology… So, yes, I went with the Barracuda. I will be installing it next week so I’ll post more on this later. Feel free to ask any questions about my decision and I’ll try to reply here. Cheers!

Then, I happened to find Productivity501. Productivity501 is run by Mark Shead and is dedicated (and does by the way) to giving you tips and tricks to help increase your personal productivity. After reading only a few articles, I got hooked and even added his feed to my Google homepage.
The first article that caught my attention was obviously the iPod Contest for reviewing the site..yea, I’m a sucker for the chance at a free iPod…either way there are some really great tips here. Some articles hit really close to home ( Internet–Friend or Foe for Productivity? and The Habit of Lateness). Even though it hurt my feeling to see that someone had been watching my habits, Mark had some very solid advice on breaking my “issues.”
I also found an article called Effective Web Browsing that had some very simple but effective advice on making the most of your browsing time, something I do very poorly. For example I do love bookmarking sites (since I use multiple computers) and a tabbed browser (Firefox) is a must, but a simple thing like a time limit?

“Set a time limit for browsing. By giving yourself a resonable time limit, you’ll keep yourself focused on things that are really important to you instead of following every random tangent hyperlink.”

Simple, common sense advice, but yet very effective.
Some other articles worth your time (be productive!):
Top 5 Time Savers
Top 5 Time Wasters
The Most of Your Minute (lots of these, great quick tips)

As far as the site goes here are some PROs & CONs:
PROS
- clean and simple site layout.
- Found in Google, Yahoo & MSN search engines (I searched for “personal productivity.”)
- great advice; simple, effective and easy to apply tips.
- The iPod give away is a great idea for boosting visitors & getting linked from other sites.
- RSS feed and the simplicity of adding to Google homepage(a big plus for me anyways.)
- add were there (Google) but done tastefully and not too overbearing.

CONS (not that I have any room to brag being a new blogger and all)
- even though I found the site on some major search engines it was normally on the 4th page of results for terms I would highly associate with the site. (I originally found Productivity501 using Google Blog Search.
- graphics included with the posts are kind of dull ( overall the advice makes it worth it though.)
- clicking the “read more” link to read the entire blog is kind of annoying for someone trying to save time but I suppose it also lets you browse more articles on the main page to see if they are applicable.
- even though I love and use Google you might want to add more RSS feed options that are easily available at the top of the page.

It will be definitely be interesting to see how the give away works for his stats. For both of you reading my blog take the time to check out Productivity501 and enter the contest. I would only ask a to share the iPod for a day a week if you win.
Cheers.