Latin American Network Security Markets Show Consistent Growth
Despite most network security vendors establishing operations in Latin America in early 2000, the region started investing significantly in security solutions only since 2002.
Since 2004, there has been a strong demand for network security solutions due to the increasing levels of attacks at a global level and a growing awareness of the importance of a complete and solid network security infrastructure. Another very important market catalyst has been the heightening demand for workforce mobility, which is necessitating enhanced security solutions to protect laptops, smart phones, and PDAs.
New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Latin America Network Security Markets, finds that the market earned revenues of $186.1 million in 2007 and estimates this to reach $598.4 million in 2013.
“One of the key drivers for the Latin American network security market is the incremental growth of vulnerability, and the gap between demand and the capabilities of the vendors’ security solution offerings,” said Frost & Sullivan Industry Manager Marcelo Kawanami. “As the complexity of IT infrastructure increases, more robust and complete solutions will be required to ensure safety.”
Two current trends that are expected to strengthen in the short term are the shift from IDS to IPS solutions and that from IPSec VPN to SSL VPN solutions. Both IPS and SSL VPN solutions are modern technologies, and therefore, include advanced capabilities.
Furthermore, bundled solutions that integrate multiple solutions into a single product are growing in popularity and driving the market forward. Keeping with the global trend, most Latin American vendors are developing unified threat management (UTM) devices as a means to better penetrate the small and medium companies that are currently interested in deploying network security solutions.
However, one of the biggest challenges in this market is the lack of awareness of current threats and available solutions in the market. The difficulty in presenting a quantifiable ROI is also a significant market restraint.
“The overall network security competitive landscape in Latin America is likely to suffer considerable changes over the next years, mainly in the SSL VPN space,” said Kawanami. “At the same time, the current competitive space of network security is strongly concentrated, with the two top participants holding more than 50 percent of the market.”
The overall market share of top participants has decreased in percentage terms. The main reason for this is the increase in the number of competitors in the Latin America markets, especially smaller companies capable of offering cost-effective solutions such as UTM and other devices with limited and basic capabilities.