Threat trends, media coverage boost security markets; more buyers looking at cloud solutions

By Victor Ng | Apr 26, 2011

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Market research firm Infonetics Research recently released vendor market share standings and market forecasts in two 4Q 2010 security market reports: Content Security Appliances and Software and Network Security Appliances and Software.

"At a high level, the story of the last 4 to 6 months has been mainstream news coverage of electronic threats, the vulnerability of electronic infrastructure, and the ability of networks, network security, and successful attacks to drive notoriety, black market revenue, and real-world change." noted Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research.

From the Anonymous/WikiLeaks DDoS battle, to the peaceful revolution in Egypt, to HBGarry Federal's embarrassing exchange with Anonymous, hardly a day went by without the words 'botnet,' 'firewall,' 'DDoS,' 'hacking,' and 'virus' showing up in mainstream news. Even Comedy Central got into the act, doing segments on Stuxnet and HBGarry on the Colbert Report.

Content security market highlights

• Content security appliance and software revenue grew 19% in 2010 to $2.7 billion
• For the quarter, the market was flat (-0.3%) in 4Q10 from the previous quarter, but is up 14% from the 4th quarter of the previous year
• Threat trends are pointing buyers to cloud-based services or cloud-aware gateway solutions that connect back to a threat hive-mind that keeps products updated continuously in response to threats
• Infonetics forecasts the content security gateway market to grow to $3.6 billion in 2015
• The vendor landscape is competitive, with McAfee in first for overall revenue share in 2010, followed closely by Blue Coat, Cisco, Websense, and Symantec
• Cisco's content security gateway revenue dropped 26% in 4Q10 on the heels of massive growth (+30%) in 3Q10

Network security market highlights

• The worldwide network security appliance and software market grew 11% to $5.6 billion in 2010 over 2009
• Infonetics forecasts the network security market to grow to $6.6 billion by 2015
• For the quarter, 4Q10 was essentially flat (+1.7%), atypical in this market
• Market leader Cisco's network security revenue dropped 11% in 4Q10 from 3Q10
• Cisco's loss was #2 Juniper's and #3 Check Point's gain, up 6% and 20%, respectively
• From Google and Amazon to the New York Stock Exchange, large companies are re-building data centers, a trend that is driving the need for new security solutions, particularly at the very high end of the IPS market and the integrated appliance market, into which SonicWALL and Fortinet recently threw their hats

Other Infonetics security studies also found that there is room for niche players in the security client software market, and that the NAC appliance market is expected to grow 84% by 2014, despite standalone-to-integrated transition.
 

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