Strong Regional Performance in Asia/Pacific Drives Security Appliance Growth in Q4 2020, According to IDC
NEEDHAM, Mass. – Worldwide revenue in the security appliance market grew 11.3% year over year and 15.0% quarter over quarter in the fourth quarter of 2020 (4Q20), according to the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker. Overall market revenue totaled $5.3 billion, an increase of $538 million from the fourth quarter of 2019. Unit shipments in 4Q20 increased 10.2% year over year and 15.3% compared to 3Q20.
The unified threat management (UTM) market accounted for 79.5% of the year-over-year increase in revenue, thanks largely to the strength of sales in the Asia/Pacific region and regardless of the on-going pandemic. However, despite being significantly smaller overall, virtual private network (VPN) sales grew the most with year-over-year revenue growth of 21.8%. Legacy security appliances, including traditional firewall and intrusion detection and prevention systems (IDS/IPS) experienced slight declines in unit shipments for the quarter.
Regional Highlights
From a geographic perspective, China carried the security appliance market for the quarter, growing by 27.4% year over year and 60.3% quarter over quarter with revenues increasing $531.4 million compared to 3Q20. The rest of the world (excluding China) delivered 6.4% annual growth and 4.3% sequential growth. Additionally, although significantly smaller than China, the Middle East & Africa region grew by an impressive 24.2% year over year and 39.1% compared to 3Q20. Other regions that experienced strong annual growth for the quarter were Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan and China) at 11.1%, Central and Eastern Europe at 9.7%, and Japan at 9.1%.
“While the ongoing pandemic has dampened the appetite for on-premise security hardware around the world, standout performances in China and a few other regions helped the security appliance market grow an impressive 11.3% year over year,” said Pete Finalle, senior analyst, Security and Trust at IDC.
| Top 5 Companies, Worldwide Security Appliance Revenue, Market Share, and Growth, Fourth Quarter of 2020 (revenue in US$ millions) | |||||
| Vendor | 4Q20 Revenue | 4Q20 Market Share | 4Q19
Revenue |
4Q19 Market Share | 4Q20/4Q19 Growth |
| T1. Palo Alto Networks | $794.0 | 15.0% | $644.7 | 13.6% | 23.2% |
| T1. Cisco | $770.1 | 14.6% | $757.5 | 15.9% | 1.7% |
| 3. Fortinet | $642.0 | 12.1% | $528.3 | 11.1% | 21.5% |
| 4. Check Point | $439.9 | 8.3% | $450.5 | 9.5% | -2.4% |
| T5. Huawei | $204.2 | 3.9% | $145.6 | 3.1% | 40.3% |
| T5. SonicWALL | $174.4 | 3.3% | $182.6 | 3.8% | -4.5% |
| Rest of Market | $2,262.8 | 42.8% | $2,040.1 | 43.0% | 10.9% |
| Total | $5,287.4 | 100% | $4,749.4 | 100% | 11.3% |
| Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker Q4 2020, March 11, 2020 | |||||
* Note: IDC declares a statistical tie in the worldwide security appliance market when there is a difference of one percent or less in the share of revenues or shipments among two or more vendors.
