IDC: Top 5 Best-Selling Security Appliance Vendors In Q1 2015

Stellar In Security

The numbers are in, and IDC has named which security appliance vendors were the best-selling and held the most market share for the first quarter. IDC defines the security appliance market as "a combination of hardware, software, and networking technologies whose primary function is to perform a specific or multiple security functions."

In total, the security appliance market raked in more than $2.3 billion in sales worldwide, a jump of 7.5 percent year over year. IDC attributed the growth to an "extremely dynamic" market, punctuated with a "growing volume and sophistication of cyberattacks," which require integrated security solutions. As security vendors tackle that threat head-on, take a look at which vendors are leading the pack this quarter.

5. Blue Coat

Despite seeing a slight drop in market-share percentage over the same quarter last year, Blue Coat held onto the fifth spot for top security appliance vendors, selling $107 million in the 2015 first quarter. Those sales numbers are flat over the year before and represent a 4.7 percent market share, down 0.3 percentage points over the first quarter 2014. The last year has been filled with changes for the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, including adding new key channel executives from Intel Security and announcing a $2.4 billion acquisition by Bain Capital. Those changes are designed to drive sales, with COO and President Mike Frey saying at the time of the acquisition that Blue Coat aimed to hit $1 billion in revenue over the next three years, up from $450 million in 2012.

4. Fortinet

Fortinet sold $191 million of security appliances in the first quarter, up 27.4 percent from $150 million in the same period last year. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Fortinet and Palo Alto Networks have been duking it out for the third-place spot over the last few quarters, with Fortinet falling into fourth place this quarter. However, despite falling behind the rival this quarter in sales, Fortinet has been steadily climbing in sequential market share overall, rising 1.3 percentage points in the fourth quarter to 8.3 percent market share.

3. Palo Alto Networks

Palo Alto Networks continued to gain market share yet again this quarter, jumping to hold 9.5 percent of the security appliance market in the 2015 first quarter, up 2.9 percent year over year. The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company had $218 million in sales for the quarter, a 54.3 percent jump over the same quarter last year. The rapidly rising vendor first joined the top five list in the second half of 2013. Its most recent gains put the vendor squarely in the third-place spot, for which it has been battling Fortinet over the past few quarters.

2. Check Point

Check Point held onto the No. 2 spot this quarter with $307 million in sales, up 12.2 percent over the $274 million in sales it did in the same quarter last year. IDC pointed out that the Tel Aviv, Israel-based company declined 11.2 percent sequentially in sales. Check Point did post some incremental market-share gains, rising 0.5 percentage points to hold 13.4 percent of the security appliance market. So far in 2015, Check Point has been investing heavily in expanding its portfolio, including the February acquisition of advanced threat detection company Hyperwise and the April acquisition of Lacoon Mobile Security.

1. Cisco

Despite having a relatively flat market-share gain, Cisco held onto the top spot in the security appliance market with 17.6 percent of the market share, compared to 17.4 percent in the first quarter last year. As companies such as Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet and Check Point gain market share, Cisco has held a strong position at the top, hovering around 16 percent to 18 percent market share for at least the last two years. Sales for the vendor were $404 million, up 17.6 percent from $371 million in the same quarter the year before.