Question

advantages and disadvantages of hardware and software

Answer 1

you can fit it into the memory and have CPU time to spare, software solutions are free. Hardware solutions almost always cost money (extra components, extra board space, extra assembly).
Software solutions are easier to upgrade.
Hardware solutions may be the only option if what you want to do isn’t achievable in software (eg. very fast filters, amplifiers, etc).

Answer 2

Hardware advantages and disadvantages

Advantages

Supported platform for PINsafe deployment
Simple Command Management Interface (CMI) for all OS functions
Testing and support tools in CMI
Management of regular backups and off server backup storage
Appliance upgrades, patches and bug fixes
MySQL DB on appliance gives resilience and scalability
Proxy port for graphical images from the PINsafe appliance gives an additional layer of security.

Software

Advantages
Hardware type may be part of organisation standard
OS may be part of organisation standard

Disadvantages

OS platform and Tomcat not supported by Swivel
Upgrades, patches and bug fixes must be manually applied
For scalability and resilience external database must be supplied and maintained
No VIP to allow failover
Session sharing of graphical Single Channel image between a pair of PINsafe servers on the same IP multicast network, manual configuration only
Replacement hardware required in event of hardware failure