Are there unified threat management (UTM) firewalls with the chops to provide the perimeter security functions that an enterprise needs? After all, enterprises generally employ best-of-breed security products, not the all-in-one devices popular with the small and medium business set. In this test of 13 enterprise UTM products Network World Lab Alliance member Joel Snyder puts these products through their paces in eight categories. Overall, he finds that good enterprise firewalls are plentiful, but adding in UTM features like intrusion prevention and anti-virus scanning will yield very spotty performance. The overall top performers in this test are Juniper, Cisco and Check Point.

Testing categories

Network World Lab Alliance member Joel Snyder assessed each of the 13 UTM products in ten categories. Here is a category by category breakdown of the results:

Check Point UTM management falters; Cisco, Juniper gain
UTM and IPv6: Do they mix?
UTM performance takes a hit
Juniper, Cisco all-in-1 devices hit on intrusion-prevention
VPN capabilities vary widely across UTM firewall devices
Tracking UTM high availability
A closer look at UTM hardware architecture
UTMs require routing for flexibility's sake
Watts up with power consumption?
AV's place is not in the all-in-one security box