With blended threats growing increasingly menacing, customers today are opting for unified threat management solutions like never before. While the SMBs appear to be the biggest drivers of this market, large enterprises are looking for scalability in their UTM solutions.

With increased computing time and therefore increased susceptibility of information to virus and hacker attacks, customers today are on the lookout for security solutions which are interoperable, scalable and easily manageable. Against this backdrop, integrated solutions like the Unified Threat Management system (UTM), which eliminate most of these bottlenecks, appear to be the most preferred. Features like web blocking and URL filtering that are part of the UTM ensure that content security is not compensated even as blended threats continue to choke networks.

"Eliminating multiple servers and integrating them into one system that performs various functions like URL filtering, spam blocking, spyware protection, intrusion prevention, and gateway anti-virus, makes the UTM among the most preferred security solutions available today," said Ajit Pillai Country Manager, India and SAARC, Watchguard Technologies.

"The integrated interface of the UTM protects the network effectively and its other features like less complexity, ease of installation and management have ensured that it serves as a plug-n-play appliance that can be handled remotely," he adds.

This means that the cost of installation of these systems is a lot less. In essence therefore, the UTM offers its customers the dual benefit of better security at lower cost. Given the above scenario, customers are increasingly looking at UTM solutions so that their content is protected to the maximum possible extent.

Boon for SMBs
The ever-changing landscape of security threats has made UTM the fastest growing segment in the security appliance market today. For SMBs and mid-size organizations, UTM is no less than a boon. Getting integrated security solutions at a very low TCO has led to an increased number of SMBs and mid-size organizations opting for solutions like the UTM.

A look at the security investments made by large enterprises and SMBs in last few years indicates that the UTM appliance market is growing at a pace of 26 percent CAGR and that the SMBs are biggest contributors to this growth. With more SMBs emerging into the security market, vendors are under constant pressure to provide solutions that are not only comprehensive but also cost-effective.

"While the SMBs are the biggest beneficiaries of solutions like UTM, larger enterprises opt for UTM as the first line of defense. As enterprises begin to grow and expand, solutions like UTM are required in order to secure networks that run in the many branch offices. Enterprises adapting to UTM in a big way are therefore constantly on the look out for scalability in their existing solutions. For the service providers this implies a huge business opportunity," believes John DiLullo, VP, SonicWall, Worldwide Sales.

Customer challenges
Value for money, availability, performance, add-on services and adaptability are very crucial for any customer in the process of decision making besides the cost and RoI.

UTM customers today, like any other are on the look out for the right kind of solutions to suit their requirements. Concerns regarding the level of security offered by a UTM run high and customers still question the robustness of an integrated system like the UTM. Some of the other issues that bother the customers as regards the UTM are the likelihood of single point of failure.

Fortunately for the customers, most of the issues are mere apprehensions. Since UTM is an integrated solution with a built-in redundancy, it provides a very high line of defense to content. Most UTM solutions are built on dedicated ASIC architectures, which ensure that its performance stands above the rest. The need of the hour therefore is to educate the customers and convince them that UTM is not a mere box, but rather the coming together of all security technologies into one integrated set-up.

The channel perspective
India is a big opportunity market for solutions like UTM, what with biggies like Cisco and Checkpoint coming up with new product lines to venture into this space. Channel partners in general appear pretty excited about the idea of deploying a UTM as it promises reduced TCO to both customer and the channel. It also resolves issues pertaining to multiple vendors and multiple products stand.

In spite of all the excitement, the channel still has many challenges to overcome when it comes to deploying UTM solutions. Some of the challenges that partners face is to ensure its easy availability to all customers.

Factors like the cost of the product with add-on services like license renewals, pre-post sales support, marketing and positioning of the brand are other areas of concern for partners. The other big challenge for partners are the points of contact for the customers and the inventories which they need to invest to provide seamless delivery of UTM solutions.

"Since SMBs are the biggest target customers, partners need to plan different selling strategies so that they can overcome the hurdles of low margins and high volumes. Also many SMB customers appear finicky and need to be educated so that they invest in solutions like UTM. Training, manpower retention, update on technologies and huge investments on demo units are the other challenges for the partners selling UTM," says Niraj Kaushik, Country Manager - India and SAARC, Trend Micro.

Market scenario
Increased investments in technology, growing networks, increased data generation and increased Internet adoption, have lead to a tremendous growth in the area of security. With the IT and ITeS market booming, the security business in India is seeing an upward growth. The BFSI sector is the largest spender on security after government, and this trend is likely to continue for few more years.

"With more customers in India beginning to recognize the power of a UTM box and hence ready to buy integrated solutions, companies specifically catering to UTM, have shown record growth in India during last year. This suggests that Indian market is now fully receptive," feels Prosenjeet Banerjee, Head - Security Services, HCL Comnet.

Experts believe that India is the fastest growing region in Asia. According to the IDC by 2008, UTM security systems will comprise a majority of the $3.45 billion combined firewall/VPN and UTM market-outpacing traditional standalone firewall/ VPNs with a 58 percent share worldwide.

Future of the technology
The security market in India is seeing a paradigm shift from point products, ie firewall/VPN, URL filtering, etc. to UTM appliances which embed firewall, IPS, URL filtering, VPN, virus screening, anti-spyware, anti-adware, bandwidth management.

The UTM approach will make it easier for organizations to implement and manage various security functions and reduce their TCO.

India is a huge market and vendors are excited by the fact that the diverse geography of the nation provides for so much more opportunity. As Vishak Raman, Country Manager, Fortinet, puts it, "With Internet penetration increasing gradually, vendors and the channel are riding on a golden goose of opportunity. As computing power increases the future would see more applications, and hence increased content generation. This in turn would imply a greater need for robust security solutions. In essence therefore the future is bright for solutions like the UTM and it up to the customer to make his choice." 

Subbalakshmi BM

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