Infonetics: Virtualization driving enterprise data center security purchases

SINGAPORE/CALIFORNIA, USA: Technology market research firm Infonetics Research, now part of IHS Inc. (NYSE: IHS), conducted in-depth surveys with 137 medium and large businesses in North America that operate their own data centers and found that 76 percent of respondents consider virtualization to be an important driver for purchasing new security solutions.

"The battle for data center security domination is raging, particularly at the high end of the appliance market. 2014 brought major market share changes, and this will continue in 2015 as buyers jump ship to get the throughput, interfaces, connection performance, and detection and mitigation technologies they need," said Jeff Wilson, research director for cybersecurity technology at Infonetics Research, now part of IHS.

"The somewhat isolated market for virtual appliances and virtualization-aware security solutions is merging with software-defined networking (SDN) in the data center, and this combination will lead to explosive market growth," Wilson said.

Infonetics' 2015 Data Center Security Strategies and Vendor Leadership: North American Enterprise Survey details enterprises' plans for deploying security solutions in data centers, as well as their thoughts on leading data center security vendors.

DATA CENTER SECURITY SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS
.        Businesses participating in Infonetics' survey spent an average of $9.6 million on data center security solutions in 2014, with plans to grow spending 57 percent
in 2016
.        Cisco did very well across the board in respondent data center security solution supplier leadership ratings: its lowest score was higher than any other vendor's highest score
.        Strength in data center security buying criteria is primarily a function of overall brand strength, but there are some interesting peaks and valleys in vendor ratings by enterprises participating in the study:
o        Juniper jumps up for technology innovation and price
o        Palo Alto has a surprisingly high score for management relative to its overall brand awareness and strength

DATA CENTER SECURITY SURVEY SYNOPSIS
Infonetics' 27-page annual data center security survey provides an in-depth look at the security plans of organizations that operate their own data centers. The study covers data center security purchase drivers, deployments, interface speed and throughput requirements, spending plans and suppliers, and features enterprises' ratings of 11 vendors (Arbor, Check Point, Cisco, F5 Networks, Fortinet, HP, Juniper, McAfee, Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro, VMware) on 10 criteria. To purchase the report, contact www.infonetics.com/contact.asp.