All-in-one printers and appliances have become the darlings of the information age. They are capable of performing multiple tasks users might want without the expense of purchasing each as a separate device. From an economic standpoint, they make perfect sense.

But does that same philosophy work on devices that, by their nature, are designed to perform very specific functions in the most efficient way possible?

An organization has brought you on as a consultant to help them determine whether they should house network services on the new Cisco-based device solution they are implementing throughout their network. What advice might you offer them regarding:

• The advantages of activating NAT or DHCP on your routers?
• Any disadvantages of running network services on infrastructure devices?
• Potential security situations that should be taken into consideration?
• Any other potential issues that should be considered?