Best Unified Network Security Solutions for Small Businesses

When managing user rights, privileged access, authentication, verification, analytics, and compliance metrics, a unified identity security platform streamlines what were once separate procedures.

Doing so helps rein down identity sprawl, a major source of cybersecurity holes. Implement a unified identity security platform to eliminate vulnerabilities, boost productivity, and extend governance to all corners of your business.

Managing people and their permissions is complex, but a unified identity security platform makes it easier than ever. You may unify your company’s user data by eliminating data silos and cross-referencing user profiles.

Table of Contents

What is Unified security?
Key Features Unified Network Security
How to Choose the Right Unified Network Security Solution for Your Organization
The Importance of Unified Network Security Solutions
Best Unified Network Security Solutions for Small Businesses Features
Best unified network security Solutions for Small Businesses
Perimeter 81
Snort
OSSEC
Wireshark
Burp Suite
Splunk
ManageEngine
Fortinet
Bitdefender
SonicWall
Conclusion

What is Unified security?

A method of cybersecurity called “unified security,” also known as “Unified Security Management” (USM) or “Unified Threat Management” (UTM), combines different security technologies and features into a single, unified strategy.

Using unified security should protect against many different types of security risks and holes while also making management more accessible and making the security system of a business less complicated.

Key Features Unified Network Security

A firewall is one of the most essential parts of unified network protection. Most of the time, VPN features are built in to protect conversations over untrusted networks like the internet.

Intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDPS) are part of unified network security solutions. They find and stop any strange or illegal network activity.

Malicious software like viruses, trojans, and ransomware can be found and removed from network traffic by unified security systems that include antivirus and anti-malware features.

Information filtering lets businesses manage who can see what websites and information based on rules they set.

How to Choose the Right Unified Network Security Solution for Your Organization

Look at your goals and needs: First, you should know your company’s security wants and goals. Think about the size of your network, the kinds of data you need to keep safe, the rules you must follow, and the threats you might face.

Take a look at your current surroundings: Look at the firewalls, antivirus software, intrusion detection systems, and other security tools you already have. Find any holes or problems in the way things are set up now.

Make a budget: Figure out how much you can spend on unified network protection. These tips will help you narrow your choices and pick a solution that fits your budget.

Think about scalability: Pick an option that will work for your business as it grows. It’s essential to scale because your network and security needs may change.

Look Over Key Features: Compare the features that different unified network security options have to offer. Ensure the system you pick has essential parts like a firewall, antivirus, VPN, intrusion detection/prevention, and content filtering.

How easy it is to run: Look for a system that has an easy-to-use management interface. Security rules must be easy to set up and monitor for security to work.

The Importance of Unified Network Security Solutions

Protection from every angle: Malware, viruses, intrusions, and phishing attacks are just a few of the cyber threats that unified network security solutions guard against.

Less complicated management: Keeping up with and managing many separate security tools can be complex and take time and effort.

Better visibility: Unified security solutions allow seeing all network actions and security events from one place.

Monitoring in real-time: Many unified systems have real-time monitoring features that let businesses act quickly on security incidents.

Ability to grow: Unified security systems can grow with the needs of an organization as it grows and its security needs change. They can handle more network traffic and more significant infrastructures.

Best Unified Network Security Solutions and its Features

Network Security Solutions	Features
1. Perimeter 81	Safe access from afar Interface that is easy to use How to Scale Security with no trust Adding the cloud Partitioning the network
2. Snort	Detection of Intrusion Analysis of Packets Analyzing the Protocol Writing down traffic Alerts Based on Rules Making your own rules
3. OSSEC	Analysis of Logs Detection of Intrusion Monitoring for File Integrity Looking for Rootkits Response in Action Rules for You
4. Wireshark	Getting Packets Analyzing the Protocol Real-Time Check of the Traffic A Closer Look at Each Packet Fixing Problems with a Network Screening for Packets
5. Burp Suite	Scan web applications Checking for Web Security Linking up Unwanted Person Set of steps Dealing with Sessions
6. Splunk	Stopping Phishing Manager of Passwords Safe on the Web banking Controlling For Kids Optimizing the Device
7. ManageEngine	Suite for IT Management Watching the network Software for Help Desks Care for Patches Taking care of Active Directory Safety and Following the Rules
8. Fortinet	Managed threats in one place (UTM) Protection from firewalls intrusion detection and prevention. Help with VPNs Filtering the web In charge of applications
9. Bitdefender	Stopping Phishing Manager of Passwords Safe on the web banking Controlling For Kids Optimizing the Device
10. SonicWall	Safe mobile access Filtering the content Cloud Safety Email Safety Protecting your wireless network Viewing and analyzing the network

Best Unified Network Security Solutions for Small Businesses

• Perimeter 81
• Snort
• OSSEC
• Wireshark
• Burp Suite
• Splunk
• ManageEngine
• Fortinet
• Bitdefender
• SonicWall

1. Perimeter 81

Safeguarding customer data ranks high on any organization’s agenda. Small businesses, in particular, prioritize cost-effective, scalable security solutions alongside performance.

Perimeter 81 delivers a holistic network security solution, ensuring data protection and efficiency through a seamless, integrated approach.

Elevate your network capabilities with Perimeter 81. Benefit from enhanced visibility, user awareness, and advanced security measures.

Perimeter 81 empowers business owners to preempt cyber threats. Embrace integrated cloud security and complete visibility for proactive defense.

Trust Perimeter 81’s robust 256-bit AES encryption to shield all data, rendering network traffic impervious to eavesdropping.

Employ network segmentation to thwart the lateral movement of malicious activity. Isolate sensitive data, fortifying defenses against breaches.

Features

• No matter where you are or what network you’re on, Perimeter 81 makes sure that you can safely access resources.
• In the cloud, you don’t need hardware to get scalable and flexible protection options.
• Employees, workers, and business partners can safely access company networks and resources from outside the office.
• Many kinds of identification must be shown before someone can be let in. This makes the building safer.
• For users and devices with little permission, SDP gives them specific entry rules.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Real-time monitoring for instant threat response.	Absence of connectivity status indication.
User-friendly rule management for network access.	Granular access rule creation is missing.
Comprehensive security with a multilayer platform.	Granular access rule creation missing.
Secures remote corporate and cloud resource access.

Perimeter 81 – Trial /Demo

2. Snort

Snort, the world’s leading Open Source Intrusion Prevention System (IPS), is a cornerstone of network security. Essential for small business security, Snort is an open-source intrusion detection and prevention system (IDS/IPS).

Snort’s efficiency lies in signature-based detection, analyzing network traffic against predefined rules for known threat identification. Customizable with a flexible rule language, Snort adapts to specific small business security requirements.

In IDS and IPS modes, Snort provides passive alerts or active threat blocking, bolstering network security. Regular rule set updates keep Snort abreast of evolving threats, ensuring robust protection for small businesses.

Features

• For legal, forensic, and analysis reasons, network activity is kept track of.
• Warns you of possible dangers so you can move quickly.
• Looks at packet data for payloads and attack trends.
• Users can make detecting rules that are specific to their company.
• Based on the need for security, it could be an IDS, an IPS, or a network spy.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Free and open-source Snort is cost-effective.	It Uses predetermined signatures, which may miss zero-day attacks.
Signature-based analysis detects known threats well.	Possible false alarms requiring manual validation.
Customizable threat detection rules.	
Allows real-time packet analysis for threat response.	

Snort – Trial / Demo

3. OSSEC

OSSEC, with over 500,000 yearly downloads, serves as a versatile intrusion detection system for enterprises, small businesses, and government agencies.

OSSEC’s extensive configuration options allow tailored security setups, including custom alert rules and action-triggering scripts.

Atomic OSSEC delivers comprehensive host-based intrusion detection and protection, supporting diverse platforms like Linux, Windows, Mac, and more.

It aids compliance with standards like NIST and PCI DSS by identifying unauthorized file system modifications and potential non-compliance issues.

Atomic OSSEC monitors real-time file changes and Windows registry settings, maintaining a forensic data copy to track alterations over time.

Features

• Keeps an eye on a lot of logs to find vulnerabilities and strange activity.
• Notifies you in real time of possible security threats.
• Checks for changes made by people who aren’t the owner of important files and folders.
• Looks for rootkits and changes to the system that don’t seem right and could mean that someone has hacked it.
• Security events, such as blocking an IP address, are taken care of immediately.

What Could Be Better?	What Could Be Better ?
Open-source and free, OSSEC is cost-effective.	Setup and rule customization can be difficult for novices.
Real-time intrusion detection and security event monitoring.	System resources needed for real-time monitoring may impair performance.
Identifies security incidents from various logs.	
Users can create custom rules and decoders.	

OSSEC – Trial / Demo

4. Wireshark

Wireshark, the world’s leading network protocol analyzer, offers microscopic network monitoring and analysis. Small businesses rely on Wireshark, a potent open-source network protocol analyzer, for deep packet inspection capabilities.

Wireshark captures and analyzes real-time network traffic, facilitating anomaly detection and security breach identification.

Small businesses find Wireshark user-friendly, with strong community support for network security troubleshooting and improvement.

With comprehensive protocol support, Wireshark enables meticulous examination of network communications, aiding in vulnerability detection.

Its filtering and search features empower small businesses to identify and respond to security incidents efficiently, enhancing network security.

Features

• Many network protocols can be used for in-depth study.
• You can target packets or traffic trends if you have strong filters.
• Color codes make it easy to look at different types of traffic.
• Cracks packets to find data packages and protocols inside them.
• Uses statistics and plots to look into how networks work and how they behave.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Advanced packet-level analysis for network troubleshooting and security monitoring.	Network analysis and packet inspection beginners may find the tool daunting.
Free and maintained by an open-source community.	Wireshark may use a lot of resources on busy networks.
Compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux.	
Can analyze many network protocols by decoding them.	

Wireshark – Trial / Demo

5. Burp Suite

Burp Suite Enterprise Edition serves a diverse user base, spanning from small businesses to global enterprises. The software empowers users to swiftly identify, assess, and resolve cybersecurity issues, irrespective of their operational scale.

Its effectiveness extends to organizations lacking security expertise, thanks to user-friendly installation and easily comprehensible output. Burp Suite Enterprise Edition ensures accessibility with output presented in a user-friendly language.

It adapts to your business’s growth, offering features to aid your security journey. Users can monitor vulnerability trends over time and assess their security posture through user-friendly dashboards.

Features

• The raw force and fuzzing are used to automatically find vulnerabilities.
• Makes changes to HTTP requests by hand and plays them back to test.
• Tests random codes and session identifiers to make security better.
• Data is changed into different forms so that it can be analyzed.
• It looks at two HTTP requests and points out differences.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Provides scanning, crawling, and manual web application testing.	Many sophisticated features of the full version require a license, which free users cannot use.
Provides real-time vulnerability feedback for fast mitigation.	New web application security testers may find it overwhelming.
Allows HTTP request and response interception and manipulation for testing.	

Burp Suite – Trial / Demo

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6. Splunk

Splunk’s software and cloud services allow organizations to search, monitor, analyze, and visualize machine-generated big data from various sources.

Over 9,000 enterprises, government agencies, universities, and service providers in 100+ countries rely on Splunk. It is the foremost real-time Operational Intelligence software platform.

Splunk software deepens understanding, mitigates cybersecurity risks, prevents fraud, enhances service performance, and reduces costs.

Splunk Light offers integrated solutions for small IT teams, harnessing Splunk’s Search Processing Language for real-time log data analysis.

Its user-friendly query capabilities enable quick analysis and reporting on 3GB of log file data daily, saving time and eliminating the need for manual scripting.

Features

• Cleans, adds, and changes data so that it can be analyzed better.
• Indexes and saves material efficiently so that it can be found quickly.
• Data is kept safe by security and access control based on tasks.
• Allows for many data sources and third-party apps to be used.
• It deals with a lot of people and information.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Provides insights through data analysis and visualization.	Larger deployments and premium features can be costly.
Monitoring and alerting security and operational events in real time.	Setup and configuration may require training.
Well-suited for massive data sets and expanding needs.	
Customizes and integrates data sources and apps.	

Splunk – Trial / Demo

7. ManageEngine

Small businesses can employ Data Leak Prevention (DLP) software to monitor and prevent sensitive data exfiltration from endpoints.

Enhance data security by tracking, detecting, and responding to potential cyber risks on endpoints, bolstering infrastructure readiness.

Safeguard sensitive files by blocking or warning users against unauthorized transfers through built-in controls. To identify ransomware indicators, monitor file activities like modifications, deletions, and extension changes.

Exercise control over USB drive actions to prevent misuse and data breaches. Scan outbound emails for potential data leaks and track web uploads and downloads to mitigate IT security risks.

Features

• Backs up and restores info to keep it from getting lost.
• Takes care of safety, compliance, and cloud tools.
• Watches determine the way individuals use apps and websites.
• Tells if a business is following the rules.
• Uses schedule and automation to make IT tasks easier.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Has many IT management and security tools in one platform.	Module configuration can be difficult and require skill.
Offers affordable solutions for all sizes of organizations.	Integration across ManageEngine products may be difficult.
Adjusts to growing businesses and networks.	

8. Fortinet

Fortinet’s Secure Networking integrates networking and security without compromising performance or functionality, enabling business growth and success.

Designed for simplicity, it offers seamless integration, automation, and cloud-based management for comprehensive protection anywhere needed.

Affordable solutions cater to office, cloud, and remote workers, with deployment options (on-premise, cloud, or as-a-service) ensuring quick ROI and enterprise-grade security.

A part of a deeply integrated and automated ecosystem, simplifying operations and securing growing businesses. Access cybersecurity through an easy, always up-to-date subscription service to thwart ransomware and other threats.

Remotely deploy and manage Firewalls, Switches, APs, and SD-WAN via a purpose-built SaaS platform for FortiGate 40-200 models.

Features

• Keeps web apps from being hacked.
• Networking and security that focus on the cloud.
• It protects you in the public, private, and mixed clouds.
• Monitoring and identifying threats in real time.
• Makes sure that only authorized people and devices can connect to the network safely.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Provides integrated firewall, antivirus, VPN, and other security solutions.	Advanced features and performance cost more, which may be prohibitive for some companies.
Secures enterprise networks using high-performance appliances.	Configuring Fortinet systems can be difficult and requires experience.
Provides threat knowledge and updates to combat emerging threats.	
Scales for small and large businesses.	

Fortinet – Trial / Demo

9. Bitdefender

Bitdefender’s cutting-edge small business cybersecurity solution mitigates security breach risks, safeguarding systems and business continuity.

Benefit from enterprise-grade protection through a single, user-friendly console tailored for small businesses. Achieve robust security without relying on scarce cybersecurity experts, thanks to Bitdefender’s automated control and visibility.

Tackle user vulnerabilities, weak passwords, and email threats with an up-to-date solution that proactively addresses emerging risks.

With GravityZone, ensure comprehensive endpoint security and the confidence of surpassing conventional SMB security tools. Seamlessly create automatic, up-to-date backup copies of user files, free from attack concerns.

Features

• Very good defense against viruses, malware, ransomware, and other threats.
• Your system is safe because it is monitored in real time and threats are found.
• Uses machine learning and behavioral analysis to find problems that are changing.
• Safe pages and phishing attempts are blocked.
• Keeps an eye on network activity and stops connections that seem suspect.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Famous for detecting and removing malware.	It may consume more system resources than minimalist antivirus solutions.
Offers strong security without affecting system performance.	Advanced users may discover fewer customization possibilities than in other security packages.
Has an easy-to-use UI for beginners and experts.	
Available for Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS.	

Bitdefender – Trial / Demo

10. SonicWall

SonicWall offers reliable, manageable, and affordable Internet security solutions to protect small businesses and branch offices’ network resources. 

Secure data communications and online transaction protection are both provided by SonicWall’s scalable security, which is a service that will grow with your company.

SonicWall provides modern, comprehensive security that is both affordable and simple to implement. The TZ line has a small form factor and an intuitive user interface, making it the perfect choice for the SMB market.

Small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) can manage, monitor, and report on smaller site deployments with the help of SonicWall’s centralized platform.

The only full end-to-end backup and recovery solution for SMBs is provided by the SonicWall Continuous Data Protection (CDP) Series.

Features

• Filters out harmful apps and websites to keep you safe.
• Stops email threats by filtering spam and fake emails.
• Safe access for mobile and faraway workers.
• Keeps apps and cloud services safe.
• It protects cellular networks with better encryption and better ways to avoid attacks.

What is Good?	What Could Be Better?
Provides powerful firewall and network security to prevent threats.	SonicWall appliance management may take practice.
Well-scalable for small and large businesses.	Regular updates may need preparation and testing to avoid disruptions.
Intrusion prevention, sandboxing, and VPN are advanced features.	
Centers network security management and monitoring.	

SonicWall – Trial / Demo

Conclusion

When considering unified network security solutions for small businesses, several options are available, each with strengths and weaknesses. 

Perimeter 81 offers a seamless and integrated approach to data protection, while Snort excels in signature-based threat detection. OSSEC provides versatility and compliance auditing, and Wireshark offers deep packet inspection capabilities. 

Burp Suite stands out for its user-friendly interface, and Splunk offers powerful data analysis. ManageEngine focuses on data leak prevention, 

Fortinet integrates networking and security, Bitdefender offers automated protection, and SonicWall provides reliable and scalable security.