Analysts report boom in virtual security

The virtual security market is set for double-digit growth

The virtualised security market is poised for strong growth through to 2014, according to the Virtual Security Appliances report from analyst house Infonetics Research.

Sales of virtualised security products totalled $203.8m (£138m) last year, up 64 per cent on 2008, but have jumped 119 per cent in the first quarter of 2010 and are expected to reach almost $1.6bn (£1.08bn) by 2014.

"The nascent virtual security appliance market is primed for tremendous growth over the next five years," said Jeff Wilson, principal security analyst at Infonetics.

"The drivers for this market are strong, and include the increasing volume and variety of security threats, the rapid adoption of server virtualisation, new security challenges presented by virtualisation, such as inter-virtual machine threats, and the availability of purpose-built solutions for securing virtualised server environments."

North America is the biggest market for virtualised security devices, and the most popular products are content security gateway virtual appliances.