Preview: New Netgear Security Appliance For SMBs

Netgear announces a new model in its ProSecure Unified Threat Management (UTM) line of SMB network security appliances. ITBusinessEdge's Paul Mah analyzes its importance.

"Networking company Netgear on Monday introduced a new member to its ProSecure Unified Threat Management (UTM) family of gateway appliances for small- and mid-sized businesses. The company says the UTM150 will serve 150 users and help secure business networks against a wide array of threats without the complexity and cost of enterprise products. Existing models in the ProSecure family are the UTM5, UTM10, UTM25 and UTM50; the newly unveiled UTM150 is the most powerful UTM currently available from the company.

As highlighted by Netgear on its product website and in the press release copy I received, the ProSecure UTM offers Web and email protection with no "per-user" licensing criteria. So why the talk about the 150 users supported by the UTM150? According to Netgear, the numeric tag was ultimately meant as an indication for administrators to better determine the right product fit for the networks under their charge."