Security appliance market led by Cisco with an 18.4% share

The global security appliance market has been forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.12% through to 2015, fuelled by the increase in more sophisticated cyber security threats along with the increasing adoption of mobile personal computers (PCs).

As a result of the increasing complexity of cyber-attacks, the market is witnessing an increase in complex security threats such as advanced persistent threats, which have the ability to bring down the whole infrastructure of an attacked destination. Hence, to secure their networks better, companies from all industries are adopting advanced security appliances.

Security appliance vendors enjoyed strong continued growth during the first quarter of this year, as evidenced by recent numbers coming from the latest technology market research

Factory revenue and unit shipments both grew in the first quarter of 2012, marking the eighth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth. Worldwide factory revenue was up 9.7% year over year to $1.9 billion, and shipments increased 12.9% to 511,220 units.

Geographically, all regions with the exception of Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) saw double-digit growth in unit shipments. Shipments grew fastest in Central & Eastern Europe with an impressive 39.3% year-over-year increase, marking the seventh consecutive quarter with double-digit unit growth. The United States saw the biggest year-over-year gains in factory revenue (16.2%), due to increased high-end firewall and IPS shipments in the quarter.

The combined market share of the top 5 global security appliance vendors increased to 50.7% during Q1 2012. Cisco held the top spot in overall security appliance market with 18.4% share in factory revenue for the first quarter, followed by Check Point with 12.7% share.

Juniper was the only vendor in the top 5 that saw share loss (0.7 points year over year) and saw a modest 0.8% year-over-year increase in revenue. McAfee and Fortinet gained about half a percent of market share compared to the prior year's period, as both saw strong double-digit growth.

For more information on the security appliance market, see the latest research: Security Appliance Market

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