Take A Crash Course In Security Risks

firewall

A UTM appliance is a stand-alone network device that combines a variety of different security-related functionality in a single piece of hardware. They are typically based upon a firewall platform; other functionality varies, but commonly includes spam filtering, gateway antivirus protection, intrusion detection or prevention, Web content filtering, a VPN gateway, and remote access tools.

The UTM's strengths—fewer appliances to buy, less network complexity and lower management overhead—make it an attractive option to small businesses, particularly as more security vendors begin to target them. Several companies offer UTMs specifically tailored for small businesses, such as SonicWall's TZ 190, Check Point Software Technologies' Safe @ Office Series, Fortinet's FortiGate-50B, and WatchGuard's Firebox X Edge series. Others, like Cisco Systems' ASA 5500 Series, are targeted at larger SMBs but can prove cost-effective for many small businesses.

In many cases, selling UTMs into small businesses means providing them with a crash course in their own security risks. While most realize that they need some protection against online threats, they often have little or no understanding of their own exposure, and don't necessarily understand the benefits of a UTM's various components.

"I think people are recognizing now that gateway security's no longer nice to have, it's a must-have," says Ernie Sherman, president of Harris Computer Services, in Nepean, Ontario. "But people just got on board with firewalls, and now we're adding on the other pieces, layering it out a bit more. We have to educate clients about what those pieces are."

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Sam Wong, president of San Mateo, Calif.-based solution provider Network Architects, agrees. "There's still a lot of education to be done. A lot of these little guys think they're pretty well protected with a firewall; they don't stop and assess their actual risk. If you can get past the education hurdle, though, the UTM's a fairly compelling story. It's nice to carry a Swiss Army knife."

Many small businesses, on the other hand, seem to be coming around to UTMs on their own, particularly if they've been hit by a significant security event or are struggling with spam.

"We've been getting more interested parties than ever before, just to add some level of network protection on top of whatever client security they have," says Chris Cunningham, CTO of solution provider C3 SystemsSecurity in Los Angeles. "It went from zero, three years ago. The smaller clients who don't have someone internal for IT, UTM simply never occurred to them, and if you tried selling it to them it would be met with glazed-over looks. This year, I'm not even trying to sell, because my phone rings enough, and I've probably had about 15 different clients come to me."

When coupled with a managed security services offering, the UTM becomes even more attractive, for both the solution provider and the customer. The solution provider gains a recurring services revenue stream, which can be critical in light of the low price of the appliances themselves. The customer gets to offload the management while gaining better overall security.

"We have about a 90 percent close rate on UTMs when we start talking about managed security," says Christopher Phillips, vice president of sales and marketing at Tucson, Ariz.-based ISP DakotaCom.Net. "Most of these small businesses either don't have their own IT people, or they're paying someone $100 to $125 an hour to do their outsourced IT for them. We can price this at a point that it just makes so much economic sense for us to be their security professional for them."

The small size of each individual client means that profitability will require scalability. "It's one thing to get it in place, and another to manage it on an ongoing basis," Sherman says. "You need scalable central management to make it work."

Finding those clients, however, should not be a problem. "This is the hottest-selling service we currently offer—we've signed more than 50 customers in the last six months," says Phillips. "It's a no-brainer sell."