Channel Best-Sellers: Security

KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN

Cisco Systems has long been a familiar name in firewalls. But in 2005, the networking giant watched while competitors ate its lunch. Last year, Cisco turned the tables.

According to The NPD Group/Distributor Track, which monitors the U.S. dollar volume sales of high-tech products through certain major distributors, Symantec held a 55.6 percent share of the firewall segment at the end of 2005, compared with Cisco's 17.8 percent.

Solution providers point to two key events as the impetus for what amounted to a dramatic turnaround last year. In June, Symantec said it would decrease its investment in security appliances, including the Symantec Gateway Security appliance line, which includes firewall capabilities. Then, Cisco in July added two new models to its Adaptive Security Appliance unified threat management series, which also includes a firewall.

In the wake of these events, Cisco's U.S. dollar volume share for firewalls leapt nearly 20 percentage points in 2006 to 37.7 percent, overtaking Symantec's results, which slipped 21 percentages points to 34.6 percent, the NPD data shows.

A big reason for Cisco's firewall market leadership is the trend toward companies looking to consolidate multiple functions within a single appliance, which has helped fuel sales of the ASA line, said Steven Reese, security practice manager at Nexus Integration Services, a Valencia, Calif., solution provider.

Now that management scale has become an operational function, simplifying management of security infrastructure is many companies' primary goal, he said.

Steve Pettit, president of Blue Spruce Technologies, Greenland, N.H., is seeing "a lot of customers" upgrading from Cisco's PIX firewall to the ASA, and he thinks the ASA series is also taking market share away from Cisco competitors including Symantec and Check Point Software Technologies, which was the third best-seller in this segment with a 15.2 percent share.

Cisco's SmartNet support is another reason behind the vendor's recent firewall market gains because customers like having an entire organization that works with them to support complex solutions, said Gary Berzack, CTO of Cisco partner eTribeca, New York.

Next: Internet Filters

BY BARBARA DARROW

Internet security continues to be a worry for businesses and consumers alike. Little wonder that the best-selling provider of Internet filtering and blocking software, Symantec, saw its share rise a whopping 13.5 percentage points in 2006 to 73.3 percent, according to The NPD Group/Distributor Track. That increase also made Symantec the top-growth best-seller in this security category.

Trend Micro, in second place, saw its U.S. dollar volume share erode 3.6 percentage points to 8.2 percent, the NPD data shows. Filling out the top three, Webroot saw its share jump 3.2 percentage points to 5.4 percent.

Internet or content filters prevent users from accessing pornographic, gambling and other types of Web sites deemed risky or simply undesirable. The category is still emerging, however, and many smaller players have yet to partner with mainstream distribution.

"I'm surprised that Websense and SurfControl aren't up there, but we buy direct. Also, it depends on what Symantec product they're talking about," said Mathew Hegarty, senior information and security specialist at Net@Work, a solution provider in New York.

Michelle Drolet, CEO of Conqwest, an IT security provider in Framingham, Mass., said one must be careful parsing this category. Some offerings that handle content filtering also include virus and malware protection. Her top stand-alone products in this area are Websense and Webroot. "Instead of 'filtering,' Websense, for example, blocks porn and gaming sites," she said, adding that broader protection appeals to some businesses.

"Some people still buy a lot of stand-alone Web filtering products because you can't have one point of failure," Drolet added. "For smaller organizations, an all-in-one firewall with A/V filtering is perfect, because there's not a lot of management required."

Dana Friedman, CEO of Dragonfly Technologies, a New York-based small-business solution provider, sees limited use for content-blocking point products. "The real way to protect people is out at the ISP level [or with an appliance]. In general, these filters are like a maid, they clean things up after they've already arrived. We want to keep that stuff out to begin with," she said.

Next: Network Security Hardware

BY KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN

Many organizations have deployed network security appliances because they make it easier to manage a multitude of security functions. But few vendors have the ability to continually add features to meet customers' changing demands.

Cisco Systems, on the strength of its Adaptive Security Appliance line, is one of those vendors. At the end of 2006, Cisco held a U.S. dollar volume share of 33.3 percent in the network security hardware market, according to The NPD Group/Distributor Track. The vendor easily outpaced SonicWall, which placed second with an 18.4 percent share. The NPD data tracks U.S. dollar volume sold through certain major distributors, including members of the Global Technology Distribution Council.

Rounding out the top five were Netscreen (Juniper Networks), with 7.4 percent, WatchGuard with 6.7 percent and 3Com, with 6.5 percent, the NPD data shows.

What makes Cisco's approach unique is that it can combine myriad security applications into appliance form, making offerings such as the ASA more compelling in terms of bringing a solution and implementing it, said Steve Pettit, president of Blue Spruce Technologies, a solution provider in Greenland, N.H.

SMBs are seeking increased communication between the previously disparate worlds of security and networking, Pettit added. "Companies have matured to the point where there is more cross-department interaction going on, and that has opened up the market for appliances with multiple IT functions," he said.

The top-growth best-seller here was fifth-place 3Com, which saw a 3.8 percentage point increase in its dollar volume through U.S. distribution last year, the NPD reports. Solution providers attributed that growth to its January 2005 acquisition of IPS vendor TippingPoint.

TippingPoint's focus on core competencies has helped 3Com steadily gain share, said Dave Shackleford, CTO of Vigilar, Atlanta. "They have some of the best throughput speeds in the market and aren't willing to compromise their custom platform performance with too many product selections," he said.

Next: Security Suites

BY PAULA ROONEY

Symantec earned the crown as the best-selling vendor of security software suites in 2006, despite losing significant market share during the year to CA.

The NPD Group/Distributor Track reports that Symantec's U.S. dollar volume share for this segment was 62.2 percent in 2006, down 19.1 percentage points from the previous year. NPD's data aggregates POS reports from certain major distributors, including members of the Global Technology Distribution Council. CA, which was the the No. 2 best-selling vendor, saw its share increase by 15.4 percentage points to 18.9 percent of the U.S. dollar volume for security suites, the NPD data shows. It was also the top-growth best-seller. Rounding out the Top 5 best-sellers were Trend Micro, which logged 8.1 percent; McAfee, which claimed 5.4 percent; and Check Point Software Technologies, which claimed 2.2 percent, the data shows.

Solution providers said CA's yearlong free trial of eTrust and lower prices for businesses catapulted its growth in 2006.

"The eTrust technology is just as good as Symantec's, so it's a great way to get the same protection while reducing cost," said Pete Greco, vice president of sales at Productive, a Minneapolis security solution provider. "We haven't noticed CA targeting Symantec specifically, but since they have the lion's share of corporate customers, it makes sense that they are feeling a bigger pinch."

Still, Symantec's lead remains formidable. Moreover, it is on track to generate $5 billion in revenue for its 2007 fiscal year. Next to CA, Symantec's most formidable rival could be Microsoft, although it is difficult to predict how well the latter will fare with its planned Forefront security software suite and services platform.

NSPI, for example, is looking at Forefront for its hosting operation but will continue to support clients who use products from Symantec, CA, McAfee, Safebrowse and Trend Micro, said Stephen Moss, COO of NSPI, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner in Roswell, Ga. "We have to give customers choices," he said.

Next: VPNs

BY KEVIN MCLAUGHLIN

WatchGuard spent most of 2006 mired in uncertainty as rumors swirled it was shopping itself to private ownership. In July, rumor turned to reality as the vendor was acquired by private equity fund Francisco Partners.

But despite WatchGuard's struggles, the vendor was still able to maintain healthy sales of its VPN products through major distributors, as evidenced by data from The NPD Group/Distributor Track. The data shows WatchGuard claimed 55.1 percent of the U.S. dollar volume share in VPN product sales, nearly 25 percentage points higher than Check Point Software Technologies, which placed second with 30.6 percent.

The NPD data includes POS information from certain key distributors, including members of the Global Technology Distribution Council. Rounding out the top four best-sellers of VPNs were SonicWall, with 2006 share of 10.4 percent, and Netgear, with 3.9 percent.

Simplicity and ease of use have helped WatchGuard claim a solid niche in the small- and midsize-business market, according to solution providers.

WatchGuard "provides an immense amount of value with low total cost of ownership," said Carl Mazzanti, CEO of eMazzanti Technologies, Hoboken, N.J.

The user interface for Watchguard's VPN products is particularly helpful for companies that have IT staff with limited experience, he said. "They've spent a great deal of time working on the user interface, so that on a non-typical core competency for an edge device, the average IT administrator can pick up, manage, configure, implement and maintain a Watchguard VPN," Mazzanti said.

SonicWall, another vendor that has built a channel around SMB-friendly products, was the top-growth best-seller in the VPN category, posting a U.S. dollar volume share increase of 0.5 percentage points. SonicWall's success can be traced to enhancements to the VPN feature set, with one of the most popular being NetExtender, a downloadable thin client that gives users access to servers and applications on the corporate network, said Deepak Thadani, president of SysIntegrators, a solution provider in Woodside, N.Y. "SonicWall's VPN is inexpensive, easy to use, and it works. It's that simple," Thadani said.