Network security field growing

According to a report written by Infonetics analyst Jeff Wilson, worldwide revenue for network security appliances and software totaled $4.3 billion in 2005. 

Cisco led the industry, capturing 34 percent of market. Check Point and Juniper trailed in second and third place, respectively. The report also mentioned ISS, McAfee, Nokia, Nortel, SonicWALL and Symantec as strong second-tier players.

The bulk of the revenue in the field was generated by integrated security appliances and software, which made up 78 percent of network security sales. IDS and IPS sales made up 14 percent of the market, while gateway antivirus products secured 8 percent.

While growth was steady throughout the year, Wilson did say that fourth quarter sales were slower than usual in anticipation of new rollouts set for this year. Sales for the final quarter were up by 3 percent, to $1.1 billion.

"We believe that many customers, while still investing in firewalls, VPNs, IDS/IPS and gateway AV, are also looking deeper into network access control (NAC) and content security solutions, which is delaying some core network security purchasing until 2006," he said.