 Special Focus
Boom time for UTM
Despite the slowdown, demand for UTM appliances is on the rise. It is mainly due to the increasing security consciousness among SMBs, compliance based buying from large enterprises, and vendors’ strategy to reinvent their products by adding more features
By Ramdas S
Despite the weak enterprise demand, one product segment that continues to do well is the universal threat management (UTM) appliance market. Research firm Frost & Sullivan estimates the demand for UTM-based solutions to grow at a healthy 35 percent CAGR, even when the overall spend on IT security is expected to be in single digits.
Industry estimates peg the current market for UTM appliances, solutions and services in excess of Rs 200 crore. Over the last three years it has grown at an aggressive CAGR of over 60 percent.
Growing interest
The biggest growth driver for UTM has been the increase in security awareness among SMBs. “Without a doubt, SMBs have become security conscious ever since cyber terrorism cases were highlighted by the media. Their management is now actively taking interest in ensuring that networks are secured. And here the UTM boxes have emerged as the preferred choice due to their affordability, and simplicity of deployment and management,” explains Abhilash Sonwane, VP, Product Management, Cyberoam.
SMBs, who till now thought that an end-point security solution was enough to secure their IT set–up have realized that the end-point approach is ineffective in providing security, believes Steve Hanna, Distinguished Engineer, Juniper Networks.
“In an Internet and wireless-driven world, client-level security is not enough. A dangerous threat like a rootkit can get installed in a PC when a user surfs or opens a picture in the browser. This can, in a few hours, wipe or steal data from the network. This realization among users have propelled them to invest in UTM solutions,” says Hanna.
The economic slowdown has also had a significant role to play in the increasing adoption of UTM appliances, according to Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, Country Manager, India and Saarc, Check Point Software Technologies. “The economic downturn has made organizations more conservative about investments in new infrastructure. They are keen to have solutions that are not only cost-effective, easily deployable and manageable, but are also extensible.”
The trend driving UTM adoption in large enterprises is the regulatory need for integrated reporting among certain sectors like IT and BFSI.
“The BFSI and IT & ITES sectors need integrated security reporting owing to their regulatory and
customer compliance demands, which a good UTM solution offers without hassle,” says Juniper’s Hanna.
Hanna’s view is supported by a recent network security market report by Frost & Sullivan. The report highlights that the BFSI sector has been the largest growth driver for the UTM market in Asia-Pacific region, primarily led by stricter compliance norms. RBI data security compliance policies for the BFSI sector and the compliance to Basel II framework has seen many banks invest in integrated security solutions.
According to Vishakh Raman, Regional Director, India and Saarc, Fortinet, the falling share of the individual VPN and firewall solutions sold in India is an indication that integrated security solutions are being preferred by Indian companies.
“During 2008, VPN and firewalls as standalone solutions accounted for 80 percent of the security hardware market, down from the 90 plus percent they had two years ago. This is expected to fall further as more customers prefer to buy UTM appliance rather than buying separate firewalls and VPN hardware,” Raman opines.
The growing market has seen the entry of new players in the UTM space. IBM for instance has launched the Proventia series of security appliances. “We have been aggressively pushing IBM Proventia series of network security appliances including UTM products, and the channel response has been excellent,” says Anoop Nambiar, Director, Channels and Alliances, IBM India.
Added features
UTM vendors are trying to go beyond traditional seven network security features (firewall, gateway antivirus, anti-spam, VPN, intrusion prevention/detection, content filtering and reporting) by adding new features that make the solution more comprehensive.
Data loss and leak prevention is now becoming a standard feature that UTM vendors are bundling with their products. “Today most Websites and portals have social networking features making it easier for users to share information—advertently or inadvertently.
A UTM solution should allow organizations to harness the potential of internet for business and yet retain visibility and control over applications and content going out of the network. Keeping this in mind we have made data leakage prevention an integral part of our UTM offering,” says Anand Iyer, President, Marketing, GajShield Infotech.
Granularity of control is another feature that vendors are adding to the product. “Users need to control applications not just by port numbers, but by specific application names and versions such as MSN messenger or Yahoo messenger. Our appliances already provide such features,” says Raman of Fortinet.
Cyberoam on its part has introduced on-appliance VPNC-certified SSL VPN. “Customers using UTM appliances have to buy IP VPN separately thus defeating the purpose of integrated security management. By providing SSL VPN on our UTM solution, customers can have Web-based and client-based secure access to internal applications through any end-point device from any location. This coupled with our identity-based platform allows customers to manage authentication based on identity of the user and not the device,” adds Sonwane.
Network virtualization is another key feature that is now being bundled with UTM solutions by few
vendors. “In many of our products, we have introduced features that help companies run departmental firewalls and create virtual networks with different security settings and policies. WAN optimization is another key element of our products,” says Fortinet’s Raman.
Bakthavatsalu of Checkpoint predicts that the next generation UTM platforms will be more intelligent in managing security threats and go beyond traditional boundaries by vastly expanding features, networking capabilities and management flexibility. “In the near future, UTM appliances will provide automated processes such as reputation-based protection, event correlation, network access control and vulnerability management,” he explains.
Vendors such as Cyberoam are working on new technologies that will reduce threats at even the end-point. “Today UTM solutions are unable to handle threats that are not routed through gateway, such as posed by USB drives. Our next generation appliances will be able to mitigate such threats,” Sonwane says.
“The next generation UTM appliances might also deploy technologies such as SNMP tracking to evaluate risk from every device connected to the net whether a Bluetooth enabled phone or a USB flash drive on a network,” says Satheesh Nair, Director, Unified Stickman India.
Channel angle
With the proliferation of UTM appliance increasing, all vendors believe that channel is the best way to tap the broadening opportunity. Vendors expect large demand to come from small businesses and ROBOs (remote office branch office) supporting less than 25 users.
Cyberoam, for instance has launched a product CR15i at Rs 31,000 to target this specific opportunity.
“The basic network security threats faced by small office customers are similar to those confronted by large enterprises. With the new product, our aim is to provide small businesses with the same security solution that bigger companies use but at an affordable price. CR15i is a high-end product that includes reporting tools, and identity based security,” says Tushar Sighat, VP, Operations, Cyberoam.
To achieve its aim of mass expansion, Cyberoam has implemented a regional distributor model that will enable smaller resellers to deploy UTM solution with small business customers. The company expects to double its channel base over the next 12 months and has launched a free certification drive to train new partners in smaller cities.
SonicWall too has recently launched an authorized training center along with its distribution partner Westcon to create SonicWall certified sales and technical professionals. “We are seeing an increasing number of solutions providers eager to sell UTM solutions and our training initiative is aimed at creating a large base of certified professionals who can deploy and manage UTM appliances and also top it up with value-added services,” says Shubhomoy Biswas , Country Director, SonicWall.
Whatever the strategy employed by vendors, one thing is clear that the UTM solutions market will only grow and this would create more opportunities for channels. |