Cloud providers to drive network security appliance sales in 2016, says analyst firm

Cloud providers will play a major role in driving new sales of virtual network security appliance (NSA) in 2016, says Dell'Oro. Cloud providers will offer NSA devices to their business customers, with a particular focus on providing virtual NSA services.

The research firm has forecast 2016 virtual NSA revenue to increase by over 60 percent over 2015. Over the past year, a number of NSA vendors such as Barracuda Networks, Cisco, Fortinet, Juniper and Palo Alto Networks reported strong growth in virtual network security appliance sales.

"We expect customers' comfort and confidence in the use of software security solutions to increase as several advantages offered by virtual NSA, including greater flexibility and novel security solutions that can monitor new vulnerabilities, will drive significant market growth," said Casey Quillin, director at Dell'Oro.