Double-digit shipment growth for booming security appliance market

Bolstered by the increasing propensity for malicious attacks, the security appliance market has experienced double-digit shipment growth and 8.6% revenue growth to reach $2.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014, says IDC.

IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker shows for the full year of 2014, revenue and shipments improved 8.4% and 8.3% respectively to $9.4 billion and 2.1 million units.

The Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) region captured 22.7% of total worldwide revenue in 4Q14 and 23.4% of total worldwide shipments.

The region gained significant shares both year-over-year and shipments in the region surpassed 100,000 units in the fourth quarter and grew almost twice as fast as revenue at 32.1% year over year.

Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, IDC worldwide trackers group senior research analyst says, "2014 saw a record number of serious data breaches causing both government agencies and companies to realise how susceptible they are to cyber threats that cut beyond boundaries.

"In spite of this, many companies still have not done enough to protect their systems, which could compromise their security and jeopardise sensitive data and information."

Vendor highlights

Cisco continues to lead the overall security appliance market with a 16.6% share of worldwide revenue in 4Q14.

This was the first time since the fourth quarter of 2014 that Cisco failed to achieve double-digit year-over-year growth in a quarter.

Check Point remained the number two security appliance vendor with 13.2% revenue share in the quarter, gaining 1.2 share points year-over-year.

In addition to 14.4% year-over-year revenue growth, Check Point posted shipment growth of 25.6% in the fourth quarter.

Fortinet returned to the number three position with year-over-year revenue growth of 27.4% and capturing 7.7% of worldwide revenues.

Fortinet remains the largest security appliance vendor in terms of shipments with 18.8% share of total unit shipments in 4Q14, driven by its Unified Threat Management solution.

Palo Alto Networks entered the top five in the second half of 2013 and has experienced the fastest year-over-year revenue growth, consistently outpacing the overall market.

Palo Alto Networks ended the fourth quarter with year-over-year revenue growth of 53.3% and a 7.6% share of worldwide revenues.

Blue Coat and McAfee rounded out the top five vendors and finished the quarter in a tie, with each vendor holding a 4.3% share of worldwide revenues.

Both vendors experienced declining revenue share on a year-over-year and sequential basis.