According to new research from Infonetics Research (News - Alert), a research firm specializing in the communications market, worldwide content security market has reported strong growth despite recession.

 

The research titled Content Security Appliances and Software from Infonetics shows that worldwide content security gateway revenue grew 1.5 percent to $544 million during the period 1Q09 to 2Q09.

 

Last year Infonetics had forecast the content security market would hit $555 million in 2Q09, slightly above the current market figure.

 

Important factors that drove the growth are the renewed interest in software due to virtualization, cloud computing, and software-as-a-service. Current economic conditions have, in fact, acted as catalysts for the adoption of cloud and virtualization services. Companies, especially small and medium-sized segment, are resorting to on-demand services available on cloud, mainly due to their cost benefits.

 

Service providers continue to upgrade their networks and build out data centers and mobile backhaul networks to support massive growth in wired and wireless traffic. Since content security is an integral part of their offerings, they are now catching up with the security deployments needed to support these networks.

 

Another factor that contributed for the growth of content security appliance and software market is the astronomical growth in security threats, Infonetics said. McAfee (News - Alert) recently reported that malware threats have skyrocketed from 125,000 unique pieces of malware in 2006 to 1.5 million in 2008 and 1.2 million in the first half of 2009 alone.

 

“The availability of commercial hacking tools, rental botnets, and the overall transformation of hacking from hobby to business has caused an explosion in security threats everywhere,” commented Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for network security at Infonetics Research.

 

The evolution of social media platforms to accommodate more services also contributed for this trend. Facebook (News - Alert) and Twitter have had some security challenges recently, and researchers have even discovered a Twitter-based botnet. Wilson added.

 

In such situations, companies need to invest in content security on an as needed basis.

“This reactive buying and lack of planning makes it impossible to stop spending on content security in many cases, which in turn keeps the content security market going," Wilson added.

 

As the threat continues to increase, the content security software and appliance market is expected to grow to $3.2 billion in 2013, according to Infonetics. Most content security vendors reported “business as usual under the circumstances,” with very positive expectations for 3Q09 based on billings so far, the agency said.

 

McAfee led the market in worldwide revenue share in the overall content security gateway market in 2Q09. The research also found that the North American content security market is expected to pass the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2009.

Considering the alarming level of threats worldwide, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Standards Association (IEEE-SA), recently launched a global initiative under the name “Industry Connections Security Group” with AVG Technologies, McAfee, Microsoft, Sophos, Symantec (News - Alert) and Trend Micro as initial members, TMCnet reported.

 

As part of the initiative, ICSG plans to develop a collaborative forum with the participation of security vendors, industry content contributors to develop, document and promote proposals for enhancing security, toward the goal of producing consensus approaches and perhaps fueling new IEEE (News - Alert) standards.

 

 

comments powered by Disqus