Network security appliance and software sales are poised for explosive growth of 27 per cent to clock up revenues of $1.3bn in the first quarter of 2006, analysts have predicted.

According to Infonetics Research's quarterly worldwide market share and forecast service, sales increased by five per cent between the last quarter of 2004 and the first quarter of 2005. Total annual revenue is expected to grow to $6.5bn by 2008.

"This was a fairly quiet quarter overall, with Cisco's big jump in hardware secure router revenue clocking in as the only major event of the quarter," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

"The network security market will grow at a 15 per cent compound annual growth rate between 2004 and 2008, driven by the many new viruses, malware and targeted attacks that surface every day, compelling companies of all sizes to invest in security. Many areas in the market will continue single- and double-digit quarterly growth over the next few years."

The Infonetics study found that Cisco is the worldwide leader in revenue market share in the overall network security appliance and software market, a position it has held since 2002.

Check Point came in second in terms of worldwide revenue share, with Juniper close behind in third.

Enterasys, ISS, McAfee, Nokia, Nortel, SonicWall and Symantec were identified as strong second-tier players, with significant revenue market share across a number of categories.

VPN/firewall appliances and software make up the majority of revenue (78 per cent in the first quarter of 2005) with intrusion detection/prevention second at 14 per cent, and gateway antivirus third at eight per cent.

North America accounted for 45 per cent of network security appliances and software revenue, according to the research, followed by EMEA at 29 per cent and Asia Pacific at 21 per cent.