According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, both factory revenue and unit shipments continued to grow in the third quarter of 2014 (3Q14). Worldwide vendor revenue grew 10% year over year to nearly $2,4-billion for the 20th consecutive quarter of positive growth.
Shipments improved 7,3% year over year to 520 752 units, making this the fourth consecutive quarter of growth. The market is largely being driven by Unified Threat Management (UTM) solutions, a unified cyber security product with many features and capable of performing multiple security functions within a single appliance.
Geographically, all regions except Japan and Central & Eastern Europe have experienced strong revenue growth throughout the past year. Latin America has delivered impressive double-digit growth over the past three quarters, including 20% year-over-year growth in 3Q14, making it the fastest growing region with 4,9% of total revenue. Latin America’s unit shipments grew 7,9% year over year and 5.2% sequentially, and accounted for 5.8% of total market volume.
The aggregate market in Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA) produced 27,2% of total market revenue and ended the quarter with 1,8% year-over-year revenue growth, led by Western Europe’s fifth consecutive quarter of growth. Asia/Pacific (including Japan) ended the quarter with 23,9% of total market revenues and year-over-year growth of 5,5%, making 3Q14 another strong quarter for the region. The North America region held 43,7% of total market revenue, fuelled by year over year growth of 6,5% and 15,5% in Canada and the US, respectively.
“As the number of mobile users, digital applications, and data networks increase, providing a comprehensive threat management solution for identifying and minimizing cyber-crime poses a challenge to every sector and has become a critical piece of infrastructure,” says Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, senior research analyst: Worldwide Trackers Group at IDC. “Cyber breaches can be very detrimental to an organisation and meeting an organization’s security needs with a robust and comprehensive solution has become increasingly challenging.”
Cisco continues to lead the overall security appliance market with an 18,7% share of total revenue and a remarkable gain of 2,8 points of share compared to the same quarter a year ago. Check Point remained the second largest security appliance vendor with year-over-year revenue growth of 12,2% and a slight share gain.
Palo Alto Networks was the fastest growing vendor in this space with year-over-year revenue growth of 58,3%, making it the number three security appliance vendor with 7,6% revenue share and 17,6% share of UTM revenues. Fortinet held the number four position with year-over-year revenue growth of 25., % and impressive shipment growth. Over the past seven quarters, Fortinet has sequentially increased its unit shipments and remains the largest security appliance vendor in terms of shipments with 20% share of shipment volume in 3Q14. F
or the second consecutive quarter, McAfee gained revenue share from Juniper to maintain its position among the top five vendors with 5,1% revenue share and 9% year-over-year revenue growth.
