Cisco, Check Point Lead 1Q15 Global Security Appliance Market

According to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, both factory revenues and unit shipments continued to grow in the first quarter of 2015 (1Q15).

Worldwide vendor revenues increased 7.5% year over year to $2.3 billion, marking the 22nd consecutive quarter of revenue growth.

Unit shipments expanded to 526,767 and grew 9.4% year over year for the sixth consecutive quarter of volume growth. Compared to the fourth quarter of 2014, both revenues and shipments declined in 1Q15, falling -12.8% and -12.6% respectively.

Regional Highlights

The United States accounted for 42.9% of worldwide revenues in 1Q15 and was the fastest growing market at 15.6%, gaining 3.0 share points year over year.

With 39.1% of units shipped, the US market gained 3.5 and 2.9 points of shipment share sequentially and year-over-year.

Western Europe saw its revenues grow 9.8% year over year in 1Q15. Revenue growth was driven primarily by strong results in the United Kingdom and Germany, with 24.0% and 21.4% regional market share respectively.

After modest revenue growth of 1.8% last quarter, Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa (CEMA) declined steeply this quarter, falling -11.0% year over year and -26.2% sequentially. Cumulatively, the regional market accounted for 7.2% of worldwide units in the quarter with net loss of -0.9 share points sequentially and -1.2 year over year.

Latin America saw its revenues grow 4.8% year over year while unit shipments increased 8.8% compared to 1Q14. This enabled the region to capture 4.8% of worldwide revenues and 6.0% of shipments in the quarter. The regional market was driven by Peru and Mexico, which saw year-over-year revenue growth of 31.3% and 15.8% shipment growth.

Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan)(APeJ) captured 18.2% of worldwide revenues in 1Q15 and gained 0.4 points share year over despite net loss of 4.5 points sequentially. The regional experienced solid year-over-year revenue growth of 9.8%, largely driven by Huawei in China.

Canada and Japan accounted for 3.0% and 3.9% of worldwide revenues respectively and gained 0.3 share points each in the quarter.

"Today's threat environment is extremely dynamic and continues to change exponentially," said Ebenezer Obeng-Nyarkoh, senior research analyst, Worldwide Trackers Group. "The growing volume and sophistication of cyber attacks has created an environment where integrating disparate security solutions is required to protect sensitive business and personal information, as well as to safeguard national security."

Vendor Highlights

Cisco continued to lead the overall security appliance market with 17.6% share in vendor revenue. Growing at 8.8% year over year, Cisco gained 0.2 share points year over year and 1.0 points compared to the previous quarter.

Check Point remained the number 2 security appliance vendor with double-digit revenue growth of 12.2% year over year revenue, despite a decline of -11.3% sequentially.

Cheek Point ended the quarter with 13.4% worldwide revenue share and gained 0.2 share points sequentially and 0.5 points year over year.

Since entering the top 5 in the second half of 2013, Palo Alto Networks has consistently grown its revenues faster than the overall market. In 1Q15, Palo Alto Networks grew its revenue 54.3% year over year with a net gain of 2.9 share points when compared to the same quarter a year ago.

Fortinet was the number 4 vendor with worldwide market share of 8.3%, resulting in a net gain of 0.7 share points sequentially and 1.3 points year over year. Fortinet maintained the same year-over-year revenue growth as last quarter, expanding 27.4% to $191 million.

Blue Coat rounded out the top 5 vendor list with 4.7% revenue share despite a net loss of -0.3 share points year over year.