WLANs, Extranets, And Internet Boundary Represent Biggest Growth Areas In Security Market

Wireless security, extranet connections, and the Internet boundary will be the biggest growth areas in the network security market over the next several years, according to a study by Infonetics Research.

The study, "User Plans for Security Products and Services, North America 2004," also found that the vast majority of enterprises rely on the security features in secure routers and integrated appliances for much of their network protection.

It found that most enterprises plan to purchase integrated appliances with aggregate performance of 100M to 1G, with increased demand for higher performance equipment up to 5G expected to rise over the next two years. Infonetics also expects significant growth in network switches with integrated security features, forecasting their use to rise from about 33% to 44% of enterprises by 2006.

The survey also found that 30 percent of respondents currently use managed security services, and 36 percent plan to use them by 2006.

Infonetics principal analyst and the study's principal author Jeff Wilson notes that the security market growth has been driven by a combination of technological innovation, real security concerns and paranoia. Not surprisingly, given the growth of wireless networking, Infonetics found that wireless security remains one of the top growth areas."While many people have been watching the security appliance market with great interest, they tend to overlook the extent to which security is actually deployed through routers and switches," Wilson said in a statement. "Just as distributed Internet connectivity and the need for companies of all sizes to secure their networks drove the integration of multiple security technologies into single products, these same factors also drove network product manufacturers to integrate security into routers and switches."