VPNs set the market on fire

"Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN's are starting to come into their own now and make a real impact on the market," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research , that carried out the study. "Many vendors are positioning them for internal security and company-wide secure application access, which broadens the target market significantly."

By 2007 annual revenue for VPN and firewall appliances is expected to reach $3.6 billion.

Six months ago Infonetics released a report which suggested Multi-protocol label switching (MPSL) and SSL VPNs were likely to challenge IPSec hegemony in the VPN arena. Between 2004 and 2006 SSL use will double, the report said, driven by ease of use and lack of client software. SSL VPNs account for 5 per cent of this market at present.

The Infonetics study also rounded up the trends over the last year. Cisco remains the market revenue leader, followed by Check Point and Juniper.

www.infonetics.com