Changing threats, new technologies push firewall products market up: Frost & Sullivan

Firewall products' market earned revenues estimated to reach $4.63bn in 2016

Innovation in the world firewall products market is set for a growth, as enterprise network environments are evolving due to the proliferation of mobile computing devices, increased interconnectivity with Web 2.0 technologies, convergence trends, and emerging technologies such as VoIP, virtualisation, and cloud computing, according to a Frost & Sullivan report.

According to the World Firewall Products Market - Evolution to Fourth Generation Firewalls, the market earned revenues of over $2.95bn in 2009 and estimates this to reach $4.63bn in 2016.

The analyst firm said that the economic recession tightened security budgets in 2009, and this state is expected to continue in 2010, as customers remain cautious. Despite the resilience of the security industry, this restraint will be most pronounced in the immediate future.

In 2009, there were more than 30 competitors, compared to 40 in 2008 and 60 in 2007. The market share held by the top five competitors had increased to 72.2% in 2009, indicating that it is difficult for new entrants to enter this market.

The research firm said that technology maturity and a high level of product diffusion have slackened growth in recent years.

In addition, customers already have firewall offerings deployed and are awaiting network refresh cycles to replace or upgrade their firewalls, thereby causing a steady decline in market growth.

Chris Rodriguez, research analyst at Frost & Sullivan, said: "The firewall initially underwent much change and innovation, with multiple product methodologies developed in a short span of a few years.

Since then, vendors have introduced new features, but customers have essentially been using inspection firewalls for over a decade.

"The firewall's ability to define and defend a network perimeter has earned itself a reputation as an indispensable security product. While this reputation has helped the market grow in the past, participants must step up efforts to innovate to ensure growth levels resume their upward trajectory."

Further, the company said that features such as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI), load balancing, and VoIP support are commonly included and new capabilities such as application and identity-based filtering are now being introduced and this will provide better protection for customers while reinvigorating customer demand for the technology.

This fourth generation of technologies holds the most potential for the firewall market, and vendors will continue to evaluate new ways to remain relevant in the long term.

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