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Evolving threats drive security appliance growth

Kirsten Doyle
By Kirsten Doyle, ITWeb contributor.
Johannesburg, 01 Oct 2013
Security will be one of the most significant emerging segments of the IT sector over the next couple of years.
Security will be one of the most significant emerging segments of the IT sector over the next couple of years.

The IDC's EMEA Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker has revealed customer revenue is up 13.8% on Q2 2012, to total $83.52 million, while shipments increased 10.8%, to reach 18 540 units during the same period.

Faysal Ayoubi, a research analyst at IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey, says the growth of the security appliances market is greatly influenced by the "evolution of new threats".

However, the global view was slightly different, with factory revenue rising in the second quarter of 2013, but unit shipments declining. "Worldwide factory revenue was up 6.1% year-over-year, to $2.1 billion in the quarter, as shipments decreased by 1.5%, to 483 354 units."

Ayoubi said in the global report, the numbers are driven mainly by the largest developed economies and US is the largest with the strongest decline in units. "Emerging markets, such as MEA, are more dynamic and still not saturated across many verticals and end-user segments. The growth in units in Q213 is driven by demand for relatively less expensive appliances, although the value growth is driven by more expensive models."

Security, a priority

Speaking about the MEA report, Ayoubi said security will continue to be a priority across all technology segments for SMEs, and will be one of the most significant emerging segments of the IT sector over the next couple of years.

He said this is due to sizeable impending investments from businesses that wish to secure their technologies, and that vendors are looking to provide solutions that block threats at each level.

"With this in mind, vendors are offering efficient means to assure that threats are blocked at each level."

Alkesh Soneji, business head Africa at Cyberoam, seconds this observation, and adds: "A few key factors, including accelerating convergence of IT networks and business IT ecosystem, increased security awareness, resulting in more investments in network security by various businesses in the region, and impact of disruptive IT trends, together contribute to spur higher growth and demand for network security in these regions."

Soneji adds that growing adoption of trends like virtualisation, BYOD and cloud-based IT environment is another key reason why many businesses in these regions are investing in network security to tackle emerging security risks and remain compliant with key regulatory standards.

SMEs vs enterprises

Ayoubi says large businesses in MEA look to the 'best-of-breed' appliances such as intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and content management features, while SMEs opt for unified solutions such as unified threat management (UTM), which accounted for around 45% of MEA end-user market revenue in Q2 2013.

"Moreover, the increased adoption of virtualisation within the region's SME segment has driven an increase in interest in security solutions that specifically target virtual environments."

Ayoubi says competition in the marketplace, and the consolidation trend among the market's players, is causing vendors to move toward firewalls and security solutions that specifically address the BYOD phenomenon. "This shift in strategy is primarily aimed at staving off competition, while increasing profitability and market share."

Cisco remains on top of the overall MEA security appliance market in Q2 2013, although its share of customer revenue fell by four percentage points year-on-year, to 18.4%. Fortinet came in second, with 15.1% of total sales. Other vendors, such as Cyberoam, Palo Alto Networks, Barracuda, Websense, and Netasq, also showed significant growth during the quarter.

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