Crossbeam Systems Named 2004 Market Leader In High-End Unified Threat Management Market According To Leading Market Analyst Firm
Crossbeam Systems, Inc., the leader in protecting the world’s largest networks, today announced it has been identified as the market leader in the high-end segment of the Unified Threat Management (UTM) market, the only portion of the UTM market where it competes. This is based on research published by IDC, a leading provider of global IT research and advice. In the IDC bulletin entitled, “Worldwide Threat Management Security Appliances 2005-2009 Forecast and 2004 Vendor Shares: Security Appliances Remain a Well-Oiled Machine #33997” (September 2005), Crossbeam holds a commanding 62.6% of the high-end segment of the UTM market, almost three times that of its nearest competitor.
According to the report, the UTM market grew dramatically in 2004 to more than USD 333 million in total revenue, an increase of 200% over the previous year. Between now and 2009, IDC expects the UTM market to have a compound annual growth rate of almost 50% and grow to a USD 2.4 billion market. At that point, UTM will be the largest Threat Management sub-market ahead of both Firewall/VPN and Intrusion Detection & Prevention.
In addition to being the leading vendor in the high-end UTM segment (USD 50,000+ price band), Crossbeam was also listed as the number two vendor in the second-highest UTM segment (USD 25,000 – USD 49,999 price band). Combining these two high-end UTM segments, Crossbeam is the market leader with 49.3% of the market, more than two and a half times that of the closest competitor. The IDC report also highlights Crossbeam as the leading vendor based on average vendor revenue per unit sold. This reflects Crossbeam’s strategy of protecting the world’s largest networks by focusing on large enterprises, multinational corporations and global service providers which demand the uncompromising UTM combination of best-in-breed security, multi-gigabit performance and carrier-grade reliability.
“One of the key UTM trends we identified was the evolution of security appliance form factors as the standalone ‘black box’ is increasingly being replaced by blades and cards for high-performance security switches,” said Charles Kolodgy, research director for Security Products at IDC. “This evolution is clear in Crossbeam’s very successful best-of-breed UTM switches as their fusion of networking and security plays directly into the needs of major enterprises and service providers, a portion of the UTM market where today Crossbeam largely stands alone.”
IDC defines Unified Threat Management security appliance products as ones that include multiple security features integrated into one device. To be included in this category, the appliance must contain the ability to perform network firewalling, network intrusion detection and prevention, and gateway anti-virus. All of the capabilities in the appliance need not be utilised, but the functions must exist inherently in the appliance. In addition to the mandatory applications, UTM appliances may also host other security or networking features.
“This report validates the success of our strategy to focus on owning the high-end market from day one, a market that has vastly different networking and security requirements than small to mid-size companies and was underserved by existing single function security appliances that were essentially PC platforms,” said Peter George, president and CEO of Crossbeam Systems. “Only Crossbeam delivers a no compromises approach that combines best-in-breed security applications from leading ISVs, multi-gigabit performance and carrier-grade reliability into innovative UTM devices that strengthen network security while lowering total cost of ownership.”
Crossbeam’s X-Series and C-Series products feature a patent-pending architecture that integrates best of breed security applications (firewall/VPN, intrusion prevention and protection, content security, Web filtering and more) from leading security companies. Crossbeam’s high performance, highly available security services switches are protecting some of the largest enterprise and service provider networks in the world.
About Crossbeam Systems
Crossbeam Systems is a global growth company that pioneered the best-of-breed Unified Threat Management (UTM) market and is a leading developer of total security solutions required for safer, simpler networks. The company has tailored security solutions for global corporations, carrier networks and small to medium-sized enterprises. Founded in early 2000 and led by senior executives from Bay Networks, Cisco, Nortel/Wellfleet and Alcatel, Crossbeam is headquartered in Concord, Massachusetts, USA, and has offices in Europe and Asia Pacific. The company is backed by top-tier investors including Focus Ventures, Tudor Ventures, Matrix Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners, Commonwealth Capital Venture Partners, Intel Capital and Charles River Ventures. More information is available at www.crossbeamsystems.com.