Security Predictions for 2002: Staying Secure

Economic downturn or not, the enterprise security market remains strong?at least for the companies selling security products?according to a recent report by Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Cahners In-Stat Group.

The report, “Enterprise Security: Duct Tape and Burglar Alarms Just Won’t Cut It,” states that increasingly dispersed corporations (thanks to a deluge of wireless devices, intranets, extranets and telecommuting workers) and ever-smarter hackers will continue to make security a difficult job. As a result, IT managers will always be in need of new, better security tools to keep their systems as protected as possible.

And the future of those tools seems to be in hardware, as security vendors increasingly turn to building security appliances, which offer speed and ease-of-implementation benefits over software solutions. The report claims that hardware-based VPN firewall revenues, for instance, will grow from $1.16 billion in 2000 to $2.9 billion in 2005, while sales of software-based VPN firewalls should drop somewhat from current levels during the same period.

For more information about the report, visit www.instat.com.