Market analyst Frost & Sullivan predicts the European firewall software market will continue its healthy growth, driven by growing awareness of security software and increased Internet usage.
Frost & Sullivan expects sales of firewall software to rise from $409.1 million in 2000 to $1.25 billion by 2005. However, vendors will need to explore new revenue channels, warns Frost & Sullivan. Firewalls, which are a security feature to protect networks from external, untrusted networks, have saturated the enterprise market in recent years, so vendors will need to find new revenue streams to maintain growth.
Frost & Sullivan says that opportunities exist in the small- and medium-sized business market. There is a growing awareness among smaller enterprises of the need to protect networks, since businesses of all sizes have increased connectivity to the Internet and email. Vendors must scale their firewall software and appliances to suit this market if they wish to continue growing sales.
As well as this, vendors can provide brand differentiation by specialising in new security areas, says Frost & Sullivan. Potential growth technologies include virtual private networks (VPNs), quality of service software, and intrusion detection.
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