The notion of combining the various security devices to protect your network isn’t new, but lately the market has become more competitive with the entry of CheckPoint Software’s UTM-1 product. UTM stands for unified threat management, and the idea has a lot of appeal – combine firewall, intrusion detection and prevention, and virtual private networks (VPNs) inside a single piece of hardware. Then wrap around some management software so that a security manager can have a single view of what is attacking your network.

According to IDC, UTMs are the fastest growing segment of the security appliance market and by next year they will even outsell firewalls and VPNs. But finding the right UTM appliance will take some careful research and testing. In this article for Datamation.com, I review some questions that will help you decide on the right product.