Unified threat management to grow, research predicts

Posted by Jessie Richards

The global unified threat management (UTM) market looks set to recover from the economic downturn, IT services users have heard.

Research from IT analyst Frost & Sullivan revealed that the market for UTM products experienced a growth rate of 32.2 per cent during 2008, but this slipped to 20.1 per cent as the recession took hold in 2009.

However, the report predicted that the industry will recover strongly in the coming years and increase annual revenues from the $1.97 billion (£1.3 billion) recorded in 2009 to around $7 billion in 2016.

The study also claimed that UTM's ability to consolidate several security products, such as intrusion prevention systems, firewalls, antivirus applications and content filtering, into a single solution makes it attractive to companies.

Frost & Sullivan research analyst Chris Rodriguez commented: "This aligns well with the larger trend of convergence in the network security industry, as customer demand for a one-stop-shop continues to increase."

Recently, IT industry analyst IDC claimed that the demand for security appliances in western Europe is likely to see significant growth in the next few months, as firms recover from the recession.