Demand for unified Threat Management (UTM) security appliances that incorporate firewall, intrusion detection/prevention, and gateway anti-virus is rocketing, newly published market research has revealed.
According to IDC's latest Worldwide Quarterly Security Server Appliance Tracker, the UTM category of security server appliances has quickly grown to become 12 per cent of the security market place, while firewall/VPNs have fallen from 87 per cent of the marketplace to 70 per cent.
"The emerging Unified Threat Management security appliance market is transforming the single function appliance into one that offers multiple security features in a single platform," said Charles Kolodgy, research director at IDC.
"These appliances will be popular because they offer substantial advantages in performance, convenience, and choice to customers, resellers, and product vendors. We expect more vendors will be entering this market in the near future."
The total security appliance sector, according to the analyst firm, jumped 57 per cent in the second quarter of 2004 compared to the second quarter of 2003. Factory revenues were found to have totalled $523.4 million, with an additional $190 million in sales gained from 2Q03.
The study found that in a closely contested and high-growth segment, Unified Threat Management security appliances grew 60 per cent compared with 1Q04. Fortinet was found to have taken leadership of the UTM marketplace with 24.1per cent market share, edging out Symantec with 22.8 per cent share. Secure Computing retained at 9.3 per cent market share in the UTM space.
IDC noted that, in the Intrusion Detection & Prevention (ID&P) security appliance market, Cisco holds the top market share spot with 24.5 per cent, followed by ISS at 14.6 per cent and McAfee Security with 10.7 per cent share. The ID&P market as a whole grew at an "outstanding pace" of 29 per cent compared with 1Q04 and 149 per cent year over year.
In the firewall/VPN segment of the market, Cisco was found to remain the leader with 35.4 per cent factory revenue market share. Juniper, which acquired NetScreen, took second with 19.4 per cent market share, followed by Nokia with 10.5 per cent share.