Enterprise security market set for strong growth

The global enterprise security market will grow by 13.8 percent in 2010 as budgets return and companies update systems, according to Canalys.

The analyst firm said that strong year-on-year growth of 15.2 percent in the first quarter underlined returning industry confidence, and that the value of the security market will reach US$15bn by the end of the year.

Europe will account for 33.6 percent of this growth, at around US$5bn, while North America will remain top with 46.4 percent market share, equating to US$6.96bn in sales.

Canalys expects infrastructure security appliances to be behind of most of the growth in 2010, generating over 48.7 percent of total security end-user value.

"Investments have returned to security appliances as many businesses invest in much overdue hardware upgrades," said Canalys analyst Alex Smith.

As a result of this "wave of optimism", growth in the enterprise security market will continue into 2011, reaching end-user sales of US$16.3bn, a rise of 9.2 percent.

"Growth will be driven by data protection, SSL VPN remote security and IT management devices as customers demand more integration and mobility," said Canalys analyst Nikki Babatola.

"Acquisitions are expected to continue as a result of the demand for end-to-end solutions that are fully integrated and managed by one console. Symantec, McAfee and Check Point kicked off this acquisition trend in the first half of the year."

Babatola added that more vendors will follow suit in order to remain relevant in more advanced security implementations.