Many businesses implementing Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) plan to replace their security appliances to address security issues associated with the emerging technology, according to market-research firm In-Stat.
While VoIP offers attractive, new functionality for business communications, companies may need to deal with security challenges to gain the benefits of the technology, In-Stat researchers said.
Consequently, more than 75 percent of companies that have deployed VoIP plan to replace their security appliances within the next year, they said.
In-Stat forecasts that the security appliance market will reach $7 billion by 2009.
"Traditional firewall technologies can complicate several aspects of VoIP, most notably dynamic port trafficking and Network Address Translation (NAT) transveral," In-Stat analyst Victoria Fodale said in a statement.
"Security product vendors are adding functions that address voice applications in their products, but as history has shown, security typically lags behind advances in technology," she added.
