UTM systems typically have multiple features and capabilities, including intrusion detection and prevention, gateway antivirus, e-mail spam filtering and Web content filtering, as well as the traditional functions of a firewall, integrated into one product offering. Some vendors offer the option of purchasing UTM appliances for all of the various functions available or integrating just a few of the functions as needed. Though UTM platforms bring together a myriad of security functions on a single hardware platform, they aren’t always the perfect solutions. There are trade-offs in terms of performance, and you would need redundant boxes to prevent single point of failures. Besides, individual application may not have all the features of purpose-built stand-alone applications. Though some of these kinks cannot be ironed out easily, if you look at the overall picture, UTMs represent the opportunity to have a single device that can streamline your network architecture, and that’s quite compelling given the times we live in now.
