Integrated security solutions evolved as a logical way-out to tackle the increasingly complex blended internet threats. The shift in the SMB sector towards an Internet enabled business model and expansion of large enterprises has given rise to the adoption of integrated security appliances.

These appliances offer features such as firewall, VPN, anti-virus, anti spam, IDS and IPS, in addition to content filtering, virtualisation, URL filtering and routing. As a recent trend, they also inspect network traffic and handle identity management.

Says Neenu S Kumar, research analyst, ICT Practice, India and South East Asia, Frost & Sullivan, “The integrated security appliance market for the first 3 quarters of 2007 was $ 31.6 million. The total market size for FY 2007 is expected to cross $ 40 million. The major trend which the IT security market is witnessing and which is expected to extend further is the convergence of technologies happening in this space. The most significant among such kind of convergence is security and networking and integrated security appliances.”

As per IDC, the total security market in India for the FY 2006-07 was estimated to be around Rs. 210 crore. The projected growth between 2005 and 2010 is about 29% CAGR in the software, 34% CAGR in the appliance and 28% CAGR in the services sector.

Transition from Point to Integrated Security Solution

Integrated security appliances have become a major trend, catering to the demand of the SMEs and branch offices of large enterprises. The convergence breeze of information security is expected to prolong further. Although large enterprises and service providers prefer stand-alone security appliances for their head quarters and central offices, they have started considering high end integrated security appliances (those with higher through put) for their branch offices.

According to Digvijaysinh Chudasama, VP, Sales, Cyberoam India, "Appliances that combine multiple security functions in a single box, popularly called UTM, are quickly subsuming point solutions. The reasons largely have been that with an increase in blended threats and the advent of 'zero-day' attacks, there arises a need for a multifaceted security solution that could proactively control the threat entry and where the various security functionalities are interoperable."

However, physical coverage is a critical objective of a comprehensive security strategy of any enterprise. UTM appliance alone may not be enough to secure the perimeter of an enterprise. A state of the art UTM would provide consistent and robust protection and is increasingly being used by the SMEs. The lLarge enterprise segment with a high-performance and high-capacity requirement would ideally go for a software option that can be installed on their choice of hardware. In these segments, point security solutions thrive as situation warrants specific and customised solutions for specific needs for comprehensive security.

Opines Kumar, “Point security solution to integrated solution will be stuck till the middle level enterprises and the branch office level of large enterprises. The transition is unlikely to happen in the large enterprises space.”

Trend More Prominent among SMEs

Integrated security appliances are witnessing high penetration in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and the trend is more prominent in the SME space. There has been a significant increase in the adoption of basic controls through an integrated solution called United Threat Management appliance. UTM involves combining multiple functional and logical security capabilities in a single product. UTM directly targets the small and medium enterprises' need for simplicity. Manufacturing, IT/ITes, Education, Healthcare verticals enjoy a prominent share in this category, whereas the banks and service providers deploy UTM solutions at their branch offices.

Informs Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, country sales manager, Check Point Software Technologies, India and SAARC, “The trend of adoption of integrated security approach is observed mostly in the SME space. With limited budgets, IT skills and resources, SMEs need products that are easy to adopt and maintain. This led to the emergence of integrated security solutions as one of the fastest-growing segments in the SME security market."

The Indian Scenario

As more and more Indian enterprises look to simplify their infrastructure management, they are on the lookout for an all-in-one security appliance. In the UTM market, enterprises from different verticals are adopting this technology for its multiple security features. Some enterprises have deployed UTM appliances in areas such as the headquarters of many of their businesses and data centres. But in few cases, the UTM deployment has supplemented the stand alone security appliance deployed by a large enterprise.

“The main reason behind the lack of sole dependence on UTM appliance is due to the fact that UTMs give rise to a single point of failure. Another reason cited by large enterprise respondents is that UTM devices still don’t have many features which can give a layered protection and the companies have to re-invest on the additional features to improve their security infrastructure," concludes Kumar.