Cisco Named One Of Top Three Most Trusted Security Vendors

Cisco has been ranked as one of the top three most trusted security product vendors and one of the top three most trusted security service providers in two surveys done by the Yankee Group. Symantec was also ranked as one of the top three most trusted vendors in both categories.

The Yankee Group 2004 Managed Security Services Survey found that of 606 enterprises, Symantec, Cisco and VeriSign rank as the three most trusted security service vendors.

The Yankee Group noted that Cisco's standing as one of the top three most-trusted security service vendors was surprising, given that it doesn't offer broad security services, offers only limited professional services, and no managed security services.

"This survey result is really a testament to the power of Cisco's remarkable brand recognition," said Phebe Waterfield, Yankee Group Security Solutions & Services analyst, in a statement.

In another survey, the Yankee Group 2004 Enterprise Security Services survey, Cisco, Cisco, Symantec, and Network Associates ranked as the three most trusted vendors of security products.In that survey, forty three percent of the enterprises surveyed name Symantec as one of their top three most trusted security product vendors, followed closely by Cisco, with Network Associates receiving the third highest number of votes.

Other network equipment vendors, including Seimens, 3Com, Nortel, and Lucent also received surprisingly high rankings in the security products survey, Waterfield said. "3Com in particular has done a great job creating a strong security position in just the last year," she added.

Waterfield also noted that firewalls and antivirus tools are the security products most valued by enterprises. She concludes, however that "the lower ranking of firewall vendors Checkpoint, SonicWall and NetScreen compared to antivirus and security players Cisco, Network Associates and Symantec demonstrates that vendors need to do more than network security to gain an enterprise's trust."