Organizations face no shortage of threats these days. IT and security teams must defend against hackers, malware, phishing, spyware, and other threats. However, protecting networks from these threats can be challenging. Enter: Unified Threat Management.
Unified Threat Management helps organizations stay ahead of cyber threats, making it an increasingly important part of managing cybersecurity. So, what is UTM, how does it work, and what do businesses need to know when implementing it?
Let’s explore.
What is Unified Threat Management (UTM)?
Unified Threat Management (UTM) is a combination of several security features and services into a single solution within a network. These protect networks and users with multiple security features, from content filters to firewalls to antivirus and beyond.
Organizations can use UTM to consolidate their IT security services, simplifying security management without compromising safety. Doing so helps monitor threats and provides holistic visibility into a network’s security and potential threats.
How Does UTM Work?
UTM integrates various security tools, thus streamlining network protection and security management. These include:
Firewalls
Intrusion detection and prevention systems
Antivirus/Antimalware
Endpoint protection
Content filters
Spam filters
Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
The combined security tools are hosted on hardware or virtual appliances, which serve as a central hub and connect to the company’s network. From there, UTM acts as a gateway that monitors and manages traffic.
Unified Threat Management systems are typically flexible, scalable, and modular, so businesses can add and adjust security functions as needed. They run on a single operating system, so that everything can be managed from one place.
Key Advantages of UTM for Modern Organizations
So, why would businesses want to use Unified Threat Management? There are several benefits to UTM, including:
Simplified management: Keeping multiple security tools consolidated makes managing and monitoring each easier, improving efficiency and saving IT teams time and stress.
Comprehensive threat protection: UTM helps ensure that all your bases are covered and that you’re fully protected from potential threats. If anything is missing, you’ll know what you need to add.
Cost-efficiency: UTM helps ensure organizations are properly investing in their security, both by helping eliminate redundancies and by ensuring that they’re fully utilizing their security investments.
Adaptability: UTM provides businesses with a flexible, adaptable set of security features. When users need to update security or add a new feature, Unified Threat Management systems are modular enough to add new tools easily.
Visibility: Keeping an organization’s security tools in one place provides a more complete, holistic look into network security. This provides companies with a comprehensive analysis of their security status, potential threats, and vulnerabilities from a single place.
Industry Applications of Unified Threat Management Solutions
The next question is: which industries use Unified Threat Management solutions and why? UTM has applications across multiple industries, including:
Healthcare: Healthcare has strict security requirements, especially for HIPAA compliance. UTM helps healthcare organizations ensure they’re meeting all their security obligations and keeping patient information secure.
Finance: Financial institutions must protect sensitive customer information, including payment and financial data. Unified Threat Management solutions can help these institutions ensure they meet their security compliance requirements and manage security from a single place.
Education: Educational institutions must protect student and faculty information across large campus networks. UTM helps with filtering, intrusion prevention, and more, all from a single place.
Small and Mid-Sized Businesses (SMBs): SMBs typically have limited IT resources, while still having strict IT requirements to protect against cyber threats. UTM solutions provide an all-in-one option that integrates multiple security features, keeping management simplified and costs down without sacrificing security.
Enterprises: Enterprises also have strict security needs and typically have large networks to protect. UTM solutions help them manage security across their networks from a single place while providing a holistic overview of their security.
Retail: Retail chains and businesses must protect transaction data and customer financial information. UTM helps centralize security, so that companies can defend each location from cyber threats and ensure that financial data stays safe.
Unified Threat Management vs. Next-Generation Firewalls
Those who have heard of next-generation firewalls might wonder: what makes the two different, and why should they pick one over the other?
A next-generation firewall is exactly what the name suggests: an advanced firewall that protects businesses by monitoring network traffic and deciding what can get through. However, unlike traditional firewalls, next-generation firewalls include features like application awareness, intrusion prevention, and threat intelligence.
At first glance, these do seem similar, but there are still several significant differences.
UTM focuses on comprehensive, all-in-one security management, which includes threat detection among its tools. Next-generation firewalls, on the other hand, are focused on advanced threat prevention and control. As such, they provide a more focused look, including deep packet inspection and application awareness.
Similarly, while UTM provides integrated intrusion detection and prevention, content and web filtering, and user identity management, next-generation firewalls emphasize those. In exchange, however, next-generation firewalls lack many of the other integrated features UTMs have.
Additionally, firewalls scan data going to and from a computer. UTM solutions, on the other hand, scan all computer systems within a network.
Essentially, Unified Threat Management is a broader protection solution, casting a wide net over your network, while next-generation firewalls are specialized and focused on specific security features.
Challenges Businesses Face When Adopting UTM Solutions
Unified Threat Management does have some challenges. These are a few challenges businesses may face when adopting UTM solutions:
Complexity: Unified Threat Management is not as simple as throwing a bunch of security tools together and calling it a day. Compiling and integrating the various tools into a single place can be complex, especially for large networks.
Compatibility: Not all security tools are designed to work together. Ensure you’re using compatible solutions and they’re properly integrated to ensure a smooth and efficient security system.
Updates: When you have multiple security tools to manage, it can be a challenge to keep each of them up-to-date. Setting up automated updates and regular maintenance checks is advised.
Resource allocation: Tackling all the other challenges of setting up a UTM solution can be resource-intensive and require expertise. It’s essential to ensure your IT team has the staff, training, and resources they need to set up and manage the solution.
Best Practices for Implementing Unified Threat Management
If you’re working on implementing a Unified Threat Management solution, you don’t have to go in blind. These are some of the best practices to ensure a smooth, efficient, and effective rollout:
Conduct thorough assessments: It’s important to assess your security needs, network, security solutions, and so forth before implementing UTM. A thorough assessment will help ensure you have the right technology and meet all your security needs. This also includes conducting regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to ensure your security is up-to-date.
Choose reliable vendors: You need security tools you can trust. Research each of your vendors in advance to ensure they offer strong, reliable security that meets your business needs and will work with your devices and network.
Update regularly: Security threats are always evolving, so security solutions need to do the same. It’s important to regularly update all your security tools to make sure you’re getting full protection.
Consistently enforce security policies: Security policies don’t enforce themselves. Make sure you have consistent security policies across your company, which are regularly reviewed and updated as needed.
Train your users: Ensure your employees understand security best practices and company policy. Human error contributes to a significant percentage of data breaches, so proper training and preparation can make all the difference.
Monitor your alerts: Security threats won’t go away if you ignore them. It’s vital to monitor your real-time alerts and logs to identify any suspicious activity, so you can cut off potential threats before they become a problem.
Essential Features Every UTM Solution Must Have
If you’re looking for a Unified Threat Management solution, it can be hard to know where to begin. Keep these features and factors in mind when looking at your options, so you can find a solution best suited for your needs:
Scalability: As your business grows, so too do your security needs. Make sure you have a UTM solution that can scale as needed, including adding new security tools and protecting additional systems.
Ease of use: One of the main purposes of a UTM solution is making it easy to manage multiple security tools. Ensure your solution is user-friendly, otherwise it’ll defeat its very purpose.
Real-time monitoring: Real-time monitoring is essential for cybersecurity; if you only learn about threats after the fact, it’s already too late. Make sure your security solutions use real-time monitoring and alerts so you can stay ahead of potential threats.
Updates and support: Consistent updates and support from the security solutions’ providers are key to maintaining proper protection. Make sure you choose vendors with reliable support and frequent updates and patches.
Future Trends in Unified Threat Management
With all that said, what’s next for UTM? As technology advances, we can identify several developments that will help improve Unified Threat Management solutions to greater efficiency.
While UTM solutions are typically hardware or software-based, the cloud has opened up new avenues. Organizations can connect their security tools in the cloud, making it easier to scale, manage, and access from anywhere, in addition to the cost savings typically associated with cloud technology.
Of course, AI has been growing significantly in recent years, and its applications in cybersecurity haven’t been overlooked. AI-driven threat detection is another growing trend in the security space, as it can quickly identify patterns or suspicious behavior and suggest remedies.
This ties in to another growing trend: predictive analytics, which uses data to identify trends and predict behavior and events. Predictive modeling and machine learning can help anticipate future threats and potential vulnerabilities, allowing organizations to address them before they happen.
How Splashtop Complements Your Unified Threat Management Strategy
While Unified Threat Management provides centralized protection across your network, many modern security threats originate from remote endpoints and off-network activity. This is where Splashtop plays a crucial role. By extending UTM principles to remote and hybrid work environments, Splashtop ensures that your security perimeter includes every user and device, no matter where they are.
Splashtop’s secure remote access and support solutions are designed with enterprise-grade protections that align perfectly with your UTM stack. These include:
End-to-end AES 256-bit encryption
Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) support
Granular permission settings and role-based access control (RBAC)
Session logging and remote connection notifications for compliance auditing
Support for regulatory standards including HIPAA, GDPR, SOC 2, FERPA, and PCI
Additionally, Splashtop Autonomous Endpoint Management (AEM) capabilities help reduce risk exposure by automating patch management and vulnerability detection—two often-overlooked components in a UTM strategy. By keeping remote devices up to date and compliant, Splashtop reduces gaps in your security posture.
Whether you're an enterprise managing a large hybrid workforce or an SMB looking to simplify IT security, Splashtop helps unify your threat management strategy across both on-prem and remote environments.
Ready to extend your UTM protections beyond the perimeter? Start your free trial of Splashtop today.
