Messaging appliances are set for growth spurt
Report finds that rising attacks are set to fuel rapid growth in security appliance market
The messaging security appliance market is set to rocket to more than $400m by 2009, according to research from analyst IDC.
According to its report, Western European Messaging Security Appliance 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Review: Messaging Security Vendors Embrace the Appliance, the market stood at just over $50m in 2004.
Oliver Harcourt, senior research analyst for European Enterprise Server Solutions at IDC, said: “The strong increase in spam, viruses and spoofing and phishing attacks will be the main drivers behind the growth in messaging security appliances.
“This offers a new area of revenue and growth for the channel, despite the fact that appliances offer less margin than software, because firms are demanding the technology,” he said.
However, Harcourt said the rise of appliances does not mean security software is doomed.
“It will be a gradual shift. At the moment the appliance/software split is about 50/50, but we are expecting that to evolve to a split between 80 per cent appliances and 20 per cent software. Appliances are always going to need the intelligence that software vendors provide,” he said.
Graham Fox, managing director of security distributor Fresh Egg, agreed that the market is growing.
“We have seen this space really take off in the past six months. This is about complete mail management, and it is being very well received by end-user customers,” he said.
“We have signed a number of key resellers in this space. I would say that it is now a bigger market than the unified threat management market.”
Phil Dick, managing director of security VAR NTS, was equally optimistic. “The appliance-based solution has been a real boost for us. Over the past couple of months it has accounted for 60 to 70 per cent of our entire business. One advantage is that appliances are not user-based and don’t require per-user licensing,” he said.
“If anything I see the market growing. It is a real opportunity for the channel, and we intend to make hay while the sun shines.”