IDC - there's gold in them there security appliances

EMEA security appliance market forecast to grow from $2.5bn to $4.2bn over five years

IDC has issued a bullish five-year growth forecast for the EMEA security appliance market, predicting it will bulge from $2.5bn (£1.5bn) to $4.2bn by 2018 despite flattish sales last year.

According to the market watcher, the EMEA security appliance market inched up just 2.4 per cent last year to $2.5bn, with Q4 sales dropping back 0.4 per cent to $689m.

But the market will continue to mature over the coming years as the network perimeter becomes exposed to new threats amid the emergence of so-called third-platform technologies such as apps, cloud and big data, IDC said.

By 2018, the EMEA security appliance market will be worth $4.2bn after growing at a compound annual rate (CAGR) of 5.4 per cent during the intervening five years, IDC forecast.

Even the more mature western European sub-market will enjoy a CAGR rate of five per cent over the forecast period, meaning sales of $3.1bn by 2018.

Unified threat management (UTM) appliances now represent nearly 45 per cent of the EMEA security appliance market following 33 per cent growth last year, IDC said.

Romain Fouchereau, manager of the security appliance programme at IDC, said UTMs – including next-generation firewalls – will continue to take share over the next five years as demand for standalone security functions wanes.

Cisco clung onto its EMEA lead in Q4 despite suffering a five per cent dip in sales year on year.

The networking goliath pocketed 18.9 per cent market share in the final quarter of 2013, ahead of Check Point on 17.4 per cent. Fortinet, Juniper and Blue Coat, who all grew revenue close to or in the double digits, rounded out the top five on 7.7 per cent, 7.1 per cent and six per cent share respectively.