2018 Security 100: 20 Coolest Network Security Vendors

Fortifying The Network

Network security has increasingly become a priority for organizations as mobility, cloud computing, and BYOD policies become more pervasive.

Growth in the network security market has been fueled by enhanced government regulation and compliance requirements, a rise in external and internal threats, cloud computing, and increased workforce mobility. An increase in cost-effective firewall offerings for small and midsize businesses has also created robust opportunities for solution providers.

The enterprise firewall market is expected to hit $8.41 billion by 2019, according to research firm MarketsandMarkets, with North America leading the way in both spending and adoption of firewall products and services.

As part of CRN's annual Security 100 list, here's a look at 20 vendors that have raised their game to meet continued needs for security around the network.

Aruba, A Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company

Keerti Melkote, Co-Founder, SVP, GM

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

Aruba's 360 Security Fabric allows users to detect gestating attacks with machine-learned intelligence, and proactively respond to these advanced cyberattacks across any infrastructure. The fabric includes proactive network access control and policy management, user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA), analytics-ready network infrastructure with embedded security, and a best-in-class security ecosystem.

Cato Networks

Shlomo Kramer, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Tel Aviv, Israel

Secure global SD-WAN provider Cato Networks enjoyed sequential quarter-over-quarter bookings growth of 100 percent, with a 400 percent increase in average deal size. The company also partnered with Infovista in September to help enterprise IT organizations apply application-aware routing policies to the right mix of Cato’s SLA-backed backbone, carrier MPLS, and the public internet.

Check Point Software Technologies

Gil Shwed, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: San Carlos, Calif.

Check Point in February unveiled a family of cloud security products to thwart an increase in account hijacking and multi-vector attacks on cloud workloads and applications. The move comes 10 months after the company launched Check Point Infinity, a platform that brings together technologies for security management, mobile, cloud, threat prevention, and its network security appliances.

Cisco Systems

Chuck Robbins, Chairman, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Cisco is targeting MSSPs by bundling its Advanced Malware Protection (AMP) for Endpoint, Umbrella cloud security platform, and Meraki Systems Manager mobile device management platform into a single cloud-based endpoint solution portfolio. Cisco and Apple also teamed with insurer Allianz in February to offer cybersecurity insurance to customers that use technology from both vendors.

Cloudflare

Matthew Prince, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters: San Francisco

Cloudflare in May launched a new system for securing IoT devices that's intended for the device manufacturers themselves. Orbit enables IoT manufacturers to configure their devices to connect with the internet through Cloudflare's network. As a result, manufacturers can easily patch if there's a vulnerability without having to "brick" or shut down the device.

Darktrace

Nicole Eagan, CEO

Headquarters: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Darktrace uses AI to identify and block digital attacks, and was privately valued at $825 million in July after raising $75 million of Series D funding. Updates to the company's cyberdefense platform focus on ease of use for new analysts while pushing the upper limits of AI for experts. CISOs will benefit from new reporting features, while the community will benefit from sharing previously unknown threat finds.

Extreme Networks

Ed Meyercord, President, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Extreme Networks' Securing the Everywhere-Perimeter program protects critical applications and confidential data while addressing both traditional and emergent networking requirements. Hyper-segmentation, native stealth, and automatic elasticity address implementing scalable segmentation, managing the double-edged nature of IP reachability, and securing edge configuration and attachment.

Fidelis Cybersecurity

John McCormack, Chairman, President, CEO

Headquarters: Bethesda, Md.

Fidelis rolled out its automated detection and response platform, which gives companies visibility over all alerts, speed their response times, and increases the effectiveness of their security operations teams. The company also unveiled the Deception Module, which extends visibility and detection deep into the network to protect critical data, addressing growing market demand and combatting modern-day attackers.

FireEye

Kevin Mandia, Board Director, CEO

Headquarters: Milpitas, Calif.

FireEye launched its long-awaited endpoint security offering in September with multiple detection capabilities, including a traditional anti-virus engine, behavior and exploit analysis and machine learning. Four months later, the company purchased big data platform provider X15 Software for $20 million to add data management capabilities and provide a platform for integrating machine-generated data.

ForeScout Technologies

Michael DeCesare, President, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

ForeScout enhanced its flagship CounterACT system in to include out-of-the-box or customized classification of devices, including profiling, taxonomy, segmentation and control policies, and hired three executives from FireEye and Fortinet to help build up sales and educational initiatives around its IoT security practice. The company also raised $116 million through its initial public offering in October.

Fortinet

Ken Xie, Founder, Chairman, CEO

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

Fortinet expanded its Security Fabric to the cloud, launching a new, cloud access security broker offering, public cloud integrations and SD-WAN capabilities. The company also integrated ruggedized firewall, switching and wireless access point appliances with FortiGuard industrial threat intelligence so that partners can help industrial customers protect their industrial control systems.

Juniper Networks

Rami Rahim, CEO

Headquarters: Sunnyvale, Calif.

Juniper protects customers from the most serious threats, with the SRX Series Services Gateways allowing enterprise and service providers to implement unified threat management, next-generation firewall and threat intelligence. The Spotlight Secure threat intelligence platform helps SRX Series optimize security policies, thwart cyberattacks, and ensure a customer's security posture is calibrated.

Netskope

Sanjay Beri, CEO

Headquarters: Los Altos, Calif.

Netskope landed $100 million in Series E funding in June and said it would put the money toward product development and more channel support. On the product front, Beri said the company would expand its cloud security platform to include web security. Netskope also planned to invest in partner training and support, and helping the channel transition to a cloud-based, recurring revenue model.

Palo Alto Networks

Mark McLaughlin, Chairman, CEO

Headquarters: Santa Clara, Calif.

Palo Alto Networks launched a new Application Framework that allows any security provider to build cloud-based applications on top of the platform, with the company providing cloud APIs, software services and compute to deliver the developed apps to customers. The company also unveiled the pilot for a new Public Cloud Specialization that serves traditional as well as born-in-the-cloud partners.

ProtectWise

Scott Chasin, Co-Founder, CEO

Headquarters: Denver

ProtectWise unveiled new integrations between its automated network detection and response platform and AWS to give businesses greater visibility into deployments, and make it easier for security teams to locate, investigate and respond to threats. The company also introduced a tool that enables the customization of threat intelligence for more reliable threat detection and faster incident response.

SonicWall

Bill Conner, President, CEO

Headquarters: Milpitas, Calif.

SonicWall in September overhauled its operating system around user experience, user interface and next-generation capabilities, launched a new firewall appliance for midtier, branch and campus customers, and unveiled a new line of wireless access points. SonicWall had more than 15,000 partners register for its SecureFirst partner program after splitting from Dell, including 4,000 partners new to the company.

Tenable

Amit Yoran, Chairman, CEO

Headquarters: Columbia, Md.

Tenable in August launched a new partner program aimed at equipping the channel with the marketing, training and deal registration ammunition they need to drive new security business. Two months later, the company rolled out enhanced integrations to help organizations better manage and reduce risk as they take on new technologies like cloud computing, IoT, and connected operational technology.

Vectra Networks

Hitesh Sheth, President, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Vectra closed a $36 million Series D funding round led by Atlantic Bridge Capital and said it will use the money to expand sales and marketing globally and accelerate the development of its AI-based threat hunting platform. The company also hired former Fidelis channel chief Scott Collins to spearhead recruitment, education and go-to-market enablement for resellers, consultants and MSSPs in North America.

WatchGuard Technologies

Prakash Panjwani, CEO

Headquarters: Seattle

WatchGuard purchased Domain Name System service provider Percipient Networks in January to boost the security performance of its existing malware prevention techniques. Five months earlier, the company expanded its portfolio beyond the network and wireless security space and into the authentication market with the acquisition of Datablink.

Zscaler

Jay Chaudhry, Founder, CEO

Headquarters: San Jose, Calif.

Zscaler in February filed to raise up to $100 million in an initial public offering and revealed that channel partners account for more than 90 percent of the company's revenue. The company works closely with global systems integrators and regional telecom service providers. Zscaler uses the cloud to offer a portfolio of security-as-a-service solutions – including firewalls, ATP, DLP, encryption and more -- that protect web traffic.