Romain Fouchereau
Manager, Security Appliance Program, European Systems and Infrastructure Solutions
Read full bio @rfouchereau
IDC has just released the Q2 2016 Security appliance tracker, sharing IDC’s insight into both past performance and future expectations of the market. The results show that the western European security appliance market value grew by 5.1% in Q2 2016. This means that the total market, which includes firewall, unified threat management (UTM), intrusion detection and prevention (IDP), content management (messaging and web security) and virtual private network (VPN) solutions, reached $668.7 million value in the second quarter. This is a 5% increase over the $636.3 million recorded in in Q2 2015.
Check Point secured its position as the number one vendor in the appliance market in Q2 2016, holding a 21% share. Cisco has seen its market share rise for the past six quarters, reaching 16% of total market value in Q2’16. From a vendor performance perspective, it is also worth highlighting the very strong growth posted by Fortinet in Q2 2016. With appliance revenue growing 31% year-on-year, Fortinet came third in the market, holding a 13% share.
The security product categories that IDC tracks are evolving very differently over time and here is what IDC believes to be the most important trends for each of the sub-markets in Europe:
- UTM appliances are currently the main driver of the total security appliance market in Western Europe. UTM appliances have managed to encompass the formerly stand-alone appliance categories of Firewall market, VPN and IDP market for SMBs, and are now attacking the enterprise segment. UTMs continue to expand their capabilities, offering a unified management approach that simplify security environments for customers. This is a critical advantage when we consider that organizations often to monitor and maintain siloed security products due to a lack of resources and/or resource bandwidth. A final key point is the rise of the so-called Next Generation Firewall (NGFW) category. In terms of classification, IDC defines these appliances as falling within one of two categories: either UTM or stand-alone firewall. Most are included in the UTM category on account of their available features.
- Firewall appliances have been declining since 2012 due to the shift towards UTM solutions. However, they are now regaining some traction at the high-end due to the emergence of built-in advanced threat protection capabilities aimed at addressing cloud security requirements.
- IDP appliances, although being cannibalized by UTM solutions in Western Europe, are regaining strength in the market. They are rapidly making up for the ground that is being lost to UTM appliances thanks to growing demand for high-end solutions targeting large enterprises, ISPs and managed service providers. The next step for IDP vendors is to add threat intelligence and network flow inspection through partnerships with STAP vendors.
- Content Management: web security and messaging security
- Messaging appliances will suffer from the continuing emergence of cheap and even free solutions that are being offered as SaaS-based products. These rival solutions are growing in popularity as companies look for to decrease expenses and simplify technology in what they view as commodity market areas, such as messaging.
- Web security appliance products are being substituted for SaaS security products in the midmarket, but are also being cannibalized thanks to rising demand for included as part of UTM and NGFW functionalities. The high-end of the web security market, targeting enterprise buyers, is being sustained – for now – thanks to interest in hybrid solutions. However, IDC expects that this segment will also be impacted to the shift away from on-premise solutions and towards SaaS-based alternatives. This is being driven by interest in the greater flexibility and lower maintenance requirements that SaaS represents.
- VPN appliances have largely been taken over by UTMs as these solutions tend to be expensive to deploy. At the enterprise level, the market has mostly shifted to the cloud with hybrid deployment at the high-end. The dedicated VPN appliance market has been in constant decline since its peak in 2009.
The total western European security appliance market is expected to reach a market value of $3.4b in 2020, growing at a 5.6% CAGR over the forecast period. By 2020, UTM appliances will represent nearly 65% of the total security appliance market value, and over 80% of units shipped. UTM solutions have been the main market driver for the total security market for some time now. However, IDC expects the remaining product categories to recover over next year (with the exception of VPN appliances whose growth is still expected to decline). UTM solutions have always been the preferred way of delivering security for organizations in Europe, due to their ease of deployment and the advanced security functions that they offer in a threat environment. These are highly desirable characteristics given that the threat landscape is evolving faster than ever.
IDC’s EMEA Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker offers subscribers the ability to quickly and effectively respond to today’s dynamic security server appliance market by keeping pace with evolving functionality and the emergence of new models in the marketplace. It provides insight into customer trends by delivering geography-specific product line and vendor market share information in an easy-to-use product interface, enabling quick-table customization for business planning activities.
For more information on the EMEA Security Appliance Tracker or on any other Security related research, please contact the IDC European Security Practice team (Duncan Brown, Dominic Trott or Romain Fouchereau)