Security appliance market grows

UTM appliances still make up the largest sector of the security appliance market

The security appliance market has improved over the first quarter of 2010, with a revenue increase of 0.8 per cent to £266.6m quarter on quarter.

Shipments also increased by 1.3 per cent compared with last year's first quarter with 133,913 units shipped, according to research firm IDC.

The largest market segment of the tracked security appliances was Unified Threat Management (UTM), with total revenue of £83m for this quarter, marking a 14.3 per cent increase on last year.

Content management appliance revenue showed strong growth again this quarter, with a 42.4 per cent increase year on year, reaching £61.5m.

Last year, it became the second-largest segment behind UTM and now represents 23 per cent of the total market.

The firewall market represented £50.4m in the first quarter of 2010; a 20.2 per cent decrease over last year's first quarter. IDC said that the firewall and VPN market is becoming more mature in Western Europe and has seen slow growth in the last few quarters.

"The economic downturn mainly affected the market in the second and third quarters of 2009 with a rebound already noticeable in the fourth quarter. The resumed growth derived from the two largest segments, UTM and content management appliances, whereas the other security appliance functions still reported disappointing results."