[Discuss] Penetration testing

[scottmarydavidsam at gmail.com (scottmarydavidsam at gmail.com)]

We need to run security / vulnerability scans against our web server and
business application (on the same server), I'm looking for suggestion, pro
and con on scanning tools and any concerns (legal?) around using them. The
tools don't need to be free but should cost less than $1000.

I'm open to learning to use the tools, I've tried Metasploit, NeXpose and
Nmap but I'm not sure I have the time and the output data provided seems a
bit raw.

I'm also looking at Acunetix, they have a cloud based vulnerability
scanner, you get three scans for $810.

Any help or suggestions other than "hire a consulting company" would be
appreciated we just don't have the budget to do that right now.

Thanks,
Scott