Security appliance market continues to grow steadily in Q4 of 2012

USA: According to the International Data Corp. (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, both factory revenue and unit shipment growth rose in the fourth quarter of 2012 (4Q12) compared to the previous quarter.

Worldwide factory revenue was up 7.2 percent year on year to $2.3 billion, as shipments increased 5.2 percent to 538,428 units. In the previous quarter, factory revenue growth was 6.3 percent and unit growth was 1.3 percent compared to Q3 2011.

Geographically, Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) with a revenue share of 19.3 percent continued to see the highest growth at 18 percent year over year. Western Europe growth picked up in the final quarter of 2012, with factory revenue rising 3.9 percent versus Q4 2011.

Japan had the highest unit growth year over year at 25.1 percent, followed closely by APeJ at 17.4 percent. The United States recorded 4.1 percent revenue growth and a unit decrease of 1.1 percent compared to Q4 2011, indicating some softness in lower price bands and that revenue growth was driven by larger enterprises and service providers.

"Typical fourth quarter seasonality seemed to help the market a bit, with overall growth picking up thanks to end of year initiatives on the vendor side and budget flush on the buyer side," said John Grady, research manager, Security Products at IDC. "Organizations continue to prioritize security within their overall IT budget. With advanced, targeted threats a growing concern, IDC expects continued high single-digit growth in the security appliance segment."

Cisco continues to lead the overall security appliance market with 15.5 percent share in factory revenue for the fourth quarter, but this was down from 17.7 percent in the prior year period. Check Point held the number two spot with a 12.7 percent share for the quarter as revenue increased 7.8 percent compared to the fourth quarter of 2011.

Fortinet saw the largest revenue growth among the top five vendors at 27.2 percent. The combined shares of the top five global vendors represented 46.3 percent of the market in Q4 2012 losing 2.6 points compared to a year ago. The share of Others increased primarily due to strong quarters from Blue Coat, Palo Alto Networks, Barracuda, Sourcefire, and Dell SonicWALL.