Infonetics Reports on Firewall, VPN Hardware Markets

February 21, 2002 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Market research and consulting firm Infonetics (infonetics.com) announced the results of its quarterly worldwide market share and forecast service, VPN and Firewall Products, on Thursday.

According to the report, worldwide firewall revenues totaled $1.7 billion in 2001, while revenues for VPN hardware totaled $1.3 billion. The company predicted the firewall and VPN hardware markets would reach $3.8 billion and $2.9 billion, respectively, in 2005.

Among the major companies whose results were compared for the fourth quarter 2001, versus the third quarter, included Check Point, for which revenues were slightly up, Cisco, which was up for firewalls, down for VPNs, NetScreen and SonicWALL, which both saw increases in the range of 10 percent, and WatchGuard, which was down overall for the quarter.

"The VPN and firewall markets are rapidly merging into a single market, and hardware-based solutions are beginning to dominate," says Infonetics Research's executive director, Jeff Wilson. "Commodity vendors like D-Link and Linksys are beginning to ship VPN products and stateful firewalls in volume, and innovations in silicon and software will make it possible for the average business customer to buy a T1 router with VPN and stateful firewall capability for less than $200 sometime in 2002.”

This, predicts Wilson, will affect the overall market, possibly causing established vendors to lose market share, as the low-end market will continue to outperform the high end.

The VPN and Firewall Products project forecasts the market for VPN products, dedicated VPN hardware, VPN-enabled routers, VPN software and firewall products, tracking a wide range of manufacturers and providers.