Infonetics Research recently conducted a survey that details enterprises’ plans for deploying security technology in data centers, as well as their thoughts on leading data center security vendors. “The battle for data center security domination is raging, particularly at the high end of the appliance market,” contends Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics.
Enterprises participating in the survey spent an average of $14.6 million on data center security products in 2012, and expect to spend nearly $17 million in 2013. While many buyers plan to invest in virtual appliances for higher-layer security technologies such as messaging, IPS, application, and web protection, Infonetics believes that businesses will continue to utilize hardware infrastructure for DDoS mitigation and firewalls.
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Wilson continues, “Based on the results of our latest study, we believe most data center security buyers will continue to turn to trusted names, but they’ll also use smaller vendors whose solutions bring a leap in efficacy, lower costs, or provide management and policy functions that offer a single window into hardware appliances, virtual appliances, and server software.”
As data center security vendors race to turn out the best end-to-end solution, Infonetics anticipates continued growth in hypervisor security solutions and even more partnerships (or consolidation) between appliance, virtual appliance, and server security vendors. Survey respondents named Cisco, McAfee, HP, Juniper, and Trend Micro as the top data center security suppliers, though Fortinet, Check Point, Palo Alto, and Dell SonicWALL are expected to find their way into more deals in 2013.
“Now is the time to develop comprehensive solutions,” Wilson adds. “Vendors that aren’t in the game yet or rounding out their product offerings will be challenged to compete for the massive dollars that will be spent this year and next.” Infonetics Research recently released its Data Center Security Strategies and Vendor Leadership: North American Enterprise Survey. More information is available here.
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