The Unified Threat Management (UTM) market has already started to outgrow the point security solution segment, said analyst firm IDC.

According to firm's Quarterly Worldwide Security Appliance Tracker, the worldwide UTM market will be worth US$2 billion in 2008 and UTM security systems will continue to outgrow the traditional firewall/VPN appliances sector, garnering 58 per cent of the overall market.

The company claimed that this is largely because UTM integrates multiple security features like anti-virus, firewall, intrusion detection and prevention systems into a single appliance.

IDC's tracker studies showed that the transition from point to integrated security appliances is due to the cost-effectiveness and ease of manageability of UTM devices.

Traditional software-based point products require fast and often dedicated servers on which to run, and are not only complex to manage, but also require investment in technical staff to operate.

Fortinet continues in number one slot

IDC's latest quarterly security appliance tracker study also showed that pioneer UTM provider Fortinet retained its number one ranking in worldwide UTM revenue for the second quarter, 2008.

According to IDC, Fortinet has held the number one spot for 10 consecutive quarters, with large enterprises and MSSPs (Managed Security Service Providers) forming the bulk of the customers for Fortinet's UTM solutions. The company is ahead of competitors such as Check Point, Cisco, Crossbeam, Juniper and SonicWall

The study showed that Fortinet led worldwide in the solution segments (US$10K-US$24.9K and US$25K-US$49.9K) for both factory revenue and units shipped and was the overall leader in UTM factory revenue for Western Europe and Asia Pacific.

Increased branch deployments

Fortinet founder, president and chief executive officer, Ken Xie explained that UTM security appliance products include multiple security features integrated into one device. To be included in this category, as opposed to other Threat Management appliance segments, UTM appliances need to contain the ability to perform network firewalling, network intrusion detection and prevention, and gateway antivirus.

"IDC's latest research supports that increased enterprise core and branch deployments of Fortinet's new generation secure gateways are helping us to successfully further penetrate this market," said Xie. "Also, Fortinet's strong position within the overall network security appliance space also indicates rapid adoption of our appliances, which have become the backbone of many enterprise, MSSP and carrier security solutions."