[April 24, 2013]

Network Security Finds Increased Acceptance Among SMBs in India

The network security market for India small and medium businesses (SMBs, companies with less than 999 employees) clearly shows a positive growth trend in the immediate future. SMBs are estimated to have spent nearly $45 million in 2012 on Network Security Appliances including Unified Threat Management (UTM), network firewalls and VPN solutions. When researching India's network security market spending, it becomes apparent that India SMBs are major contributors. Their current spending share in this market is not far behind that of large enterprises. These are a few highlights emerging from the soon to be published "2013 India Network Security Appliance Market Landscape" study conducted by New York-based AMI-Partners.

The demand for IT security is the major growth driver in the network security market for India SMBs. Moreover, emerging wireless LAN-based technologies such as 3G, wimax, and Wi-Fi hotspots enhance the need for securing the data residing on these networks. "The increase in usage of various forms of broadband facilitating greater usage of business traffic through web and mobile services has augmented the need for network security among India SMBs", noted Somnath Das, Manager-Research at AMI. "It is also important to mention that larger SMBs are now transmitting more critical applications over their networks for greater availability throughout their organization", Das continued.

Another key trend is the shift towards convergence; this has led to strong adoption of network security solutions and has also enhanced the security appliances market. AMI has done extensive research on the appliance market, especially for Unified Threat Management. This area is a main component of the security appliances market and promises rich future possibilities. By adopting UTM a typical SMB can obtain enterprise level network protection and rapidly adapt itself to reduce the adverse effects of newly-evolving threats emanating from sources such as Web 2.0, VoIP, streaming media, IM, P2P, etc. Furthermore, UTM enjoys a much lower TCO and is a more affordable approach for SMBs. Currently, India SMBs contribute nearly one-third of the UTM market revenue of all India businesses. "A key feature of the UTM market has been its healthy grwth rate in the last 3 years remaining unaffected by the uncertain economic climate. It is expected that the India SMB UTM market will continue to gain traction in the next two to three years with double-digit annual growth rates predicted", stated Mr. Das.

AMI has gauged India SMB user preferences in network security as a part of its study. "AMI's study reveals that India SMBs are likely to be more attracted by a versatile and multi-functional "all-in-one-box" type of security application including features such as end-point security, secure web and mail gateway. These businesses prefer easier and hassle-free management of security devices", said Mr. Das. A key reason that India SMBs prefer this type of technology is their lack of internal IT management infrastructure. Just over a quarter of India SMBs employ a full-time, dedicated internal IT professional.

AMIs' study provides critical insights into vendor activities focused on India SMBs within the network security appliance space. Almost all vendors are competing to reach this lucrative market segment through innovative offerings, introducing combinations of models with multiple features, and lower prices. Even vendors who are strongly established in the enterprise segment have introduced products aimed at customers with less than 25 users. These factors have greatly enhanced the options for SMBs in the network security appliances arena. The market has also witnessed the emergence of local players offering products at par with global standards. These vendors have built their strength in the SMB space through strong research and development and continuous market innovations.

Related Study

AMI's soon to be published "2013 India Network Security Appliance Market Landscape" study delivers insights on how SMBs are accepting challenges emerging from greater usage of internet based applications and growing network security issues.

Network security vendors need to find a place within the consideration set of India SMBs and finally be the selected brand; this requires carefully delivering a well-crafted customer message, experience, and product. The study provides marketing and product executives insights to effectively enhance their go-to-market approach for greater bottom line impact among these SMBs.

The study provides various insights on the network security market with a focus on individual sub-components such as UTM and VPN solutions. Various details on these technologies are provided in this study for example; market size, current and future growth rates, regional and geographical segregation, vertical and segment-wise analysis. Details of market drivers, current and future roadmap for network security and opportunities for vendors are uncovered through the study. The study also provides an analysis of key competitors in this segment. This information is invaluable for a vendor who wishes to develop a growth strategy within the network security market aimed at increasing wallet share and gaining an edge over competitors.

For more information about this study, AMI-Partners, or our global SMB research, call 212 944 5100, e-mail [email protected] or visit our web site at www.ami-partners.com.

About Access Markets International (AMI) Partners, Inc.

AMI-Partners specializes in IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services strategy, venture capital, and actionable market intelligence-with a strong focus on global small and medium business (SMB) enterprises and extending into large enterprises and home-based businesses. The AMI-Partners mission is to empower clients for success with the highest quality data, business strategy perspectives and go-to-market solutions. Led by Andy Bose, the firm has built a world-class management team with deep experience cutting across IT, telecommunications and business services sectors in established and emerging markets.

AMI-Partners has helped shape the go-to-market SMB strategies of more than 150 leading IT, Internet, telecommunications and business services companies over the last ten years. The firm is well known for its IT and Internet adoption-based segmentation of the SMB markets, its annual Retainership services based on global SMB tracking surveys in more than 25 countries, and its proprietary database of SMBs and SMB channel partners in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific. The firm invests significantly in collecting survey-based information from several thousand SMBs annually, and is considered the premier source for global SMB trends and analysis.

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