Across the worldwide security appliance market, both factory revenues and unit shipments continued to grow in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15), as cyber attacks become increasingly sophisticated.
That’s according to IDC, which claims that worldwide vendor revenues increased 7.5 percent year over year to US$2.3 billion, marking the 22nd consecutive quarter of revenue growth.
Unit shipments expanded to 526,767 and grew 9.4 percent year over year for the sixth consecutive quarter of volume growth.
Compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, both revenues and shipments declined in 1Q15, falling -12.8 percent and -12.6 percent respectively.
“Today's threat environment is extremely dynamic and continues to change exponentially,” says Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, senior research analyst, Worldwide Trackers Group, IDC.
“The growing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks has created an environment where integrating disparate security solutions is required to protect sensitive business and personal information, as well as to safeguard national security.”
Regionally speaking, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) captured 18.2 percent of worldwide revenues in 1Q15 and gained 0.4 points share year over despite net loss of 4.5 points sequentially.
The regional experienced solid year-over-year revenue growth of 9.8 percent, largely driven by Huawei in China.
Vendors
Cisco continued to lead the overall security appliance market with 17.6 percent share in vendor revenue. Growing at 8.8 percent year over year, Cisco gained 0.2 share points year over year and 1.0 points compared to the previous quarter.
Check Point remained the no.2 security appliance vendor with double-digit revenue growth of 12.2 percent year over year revenue, despite a decline of -11.3 percent sequentially.
Check Point ended the quarter with 13.4 percent worldwide revenue share and gained 0.2 share points sequentially and 0.5 points year over year.
Since entering the top 5 in the second half of 2013, Palo Alto Networks has consistently grown its revenues faster than the overall market.
In 1Q15, Palo Alto Networks grew its revenue 54.3 percent year over year with a net gain of 2.9 share points when compared to the same quarter a year ago.
Fortinet was the no.4 vendor with worldwide market share of 8.3 percent, resulting in a net gain of 0.7 share points sequentially and 1.3 points year over year.
Fortinet maintained the same year-over-year revenue growth as last quarter, expanding 27.4 percent to $191 million.
Blue Coat rounded out the top 5 vendor list with 4.7 percent revenue share despite a net loss of -0.3 share points year over year.
