The South African security appliances market grew in value by 3.6% year-on-year in Q2 2013, to reach $11.97 million in revenue.
In addition, the value of the market is expected to increase from $49.59 million in 2012 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.9%, to reach $72.46 million in 2017.
This was revealed by the IDC's EMEA Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, which provides total market size and vendor shares for security appliance technologies, and covers 42 countries across Western Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. The security appliance market is further segmented by function, sub-function, price band, family, model, server class and operating system.
The Tracker showed that, during Q2 2013, 2 515 units of network security appliances were shipped to SA, and the total number of units shipped is expected to increase from 10 789 in 2012 to 16 515 in 2017, representing a CAGR of 8.9%.
"Primary adoptions and upgrades of network security appliances are taking place primarily in the financial services, retail and telecommunications sectors, driven by regulatory compliances such as Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS)", says Jiaqi Sun, research analyst at IDC SA.
He adds that the growth in targeted and zero-day attacks is driving the demand for real-time network management and software upgrades, as well as data-loss prevention features to reduce the impact on these sectors.
Sun says uptake in the government sector is also expected to grow, driven by IT continuity standards and security management initiatives such as the Cyber Security Framework. "These initiatives aim to reduce system deficiencies and secure against losses associated with data breach in government departments."
For SMEs in particular, Sun says price is a key factor in purchase decisions in SA. "Unified solutions such as UTM [unified threat management] will be a preferred solution for SMEs, in line with their business strategies for cost reduction, system simplification and efficiency enhancement."
However, he says that, in the short to medium term, the high-end market will continue to opt for standalone firewalls, intrusion and prevention systems (IPS), and content management modules, as they seek in-depth defence and high-performance appliances.
"In the next five years, technology vendors will face increasing market competition and will aim to enrich their product portfolios through mergers, acquisitions and strategic partnerships. This will enable them to offer comprehensive network security systems and value-added support services, as well as to differentiate themselves from competitors," adds Sun.
Check Point, Fortinet, Juniper and Cisco collectively represented 55% of market value in Q2 2013, maintaining their leading positions, according to the Tracker.
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