Security appliances back in vogue in EMEA

Demand for UTMs and web security appliances drive 7.9 per cent revenue surge in western Europe

The EMEA security appliance market returned to strong growth in the third quarter as cloud and mobility drove spending, according to IDC.

Following a muted start to 2013, factory revenue rose a sprightly 6.6 per cent to $624.9m (£383.6m) in the three months to 31 October, with nearly half of the total generated by unified threat management (UTM) devices, IDC said. Unit shipments fell 1.8 per cent to 171,158.

Factory revenue growth for the first three quarters of the year stands at a more modest 4.2 per cent.

"The strong demand for security products is driven by the need to secure cloud access and deployments; the increasingly large demand for mobility; and the requirements from organisations for multipurpose and scalable solutions," said Romain Fouchereau, security appliance programme manager at IDC.

Following 37.7 per cent growth in Q3, UTM now represent 45.3 per cent of total security appliance revenue in the region.

Cisco still led the overall market but following a 7.8 per cent annual shrinkage in revenue is now less than a single percentage point ahead of Check Point, which grew by 9.6 per cent to claim an 18 per cent share.

Juniper kept its nose ahead of Fortinet in third place on the back of a 12 per cent hike in sales, while Blue Coat recorded a 70.5 per cent revenue hike, propelling it into fifth place on 5.4 per cent market share.

The western European market grew 7.9 per cent to $480.2m in Q3, driven by demand for UTM appliances, including next-generation firewalls, and web security appliances. This took growth for the first three quarters of the year in the sub-region to four per cent.