Worldwide appliance sales grow

Enterprises see appliances as central to network security, says analyst

Worldwide sales of security server appliances grew by $42m (£27m) in the final quarter of 2002, with firewall and virtual private network (VPN) appliances leading the way, according to IDC.

The overall market grew by 15 per cent as shipments rose to $355m in Q4 2002, with firewall and VPN devices accounting for 90 per cent of revenue.

Charles Kolodgy, research director for security products at IDC, said enterprises now see appliances as central to network security.

"The firewall/VPN appliance market continues to grow despite the weak economy, and network intrusion detection appliances are increasing in popularity," he said in a statement.

According to the findings, Cisco led the way in the final quarter of 2002 with a 37.4 per cent share, and Nokia came second with a 15.9 per cent share.

NetScreen recorded growth of almost 32 per cent, raising its total market share to 12 per cent, while SonicWall was the only top-five vendor to record a drop, with appliance sales falling by 12.7 per cent.

Luca Bertagnolio, security products marketing manager at Cisco, said the vendor is ahead of the field because it has always seen security as the domain of the appliance.

"We have always been pushing security appliances and are ahead of a market that is coming our way," he claimed.

The research also found that server-based intrusion detection systems were the fastest-growing products in this category, with 19 per cent growth in the quarter.

Bertagnolio said the variety of resellers selling security appliances is helping to increase sales.

"This is not just an opportunity for security resellers. Those selling networking equipment are now selling a lot of security because this is what their customers are asking for," he said.

"Vendors are making life easier for resellers with better price and performance ratios on appliances today."