As industry watchers predict secure content and application delivery technology to grow more important to enterprise network managers, three vendors are vying to bring customers on board.

According to a recent report published by IDC, the secure content and application delivery market grew about 15% from 2003 to 2004, and products in the area "have evolved from primarily supporting the performance of Internet traffic into a platform customers use to increase the performance and security of the applications they deliver to end users." IDC says the technology - which can provide bandwidth optimization benefits, serve as an Internet gatekeeper and secure networks with content filtering tools - is becoming a necessary element in network infrastructure.

Just a few vendors are capitalizing on the need. In fact, the top three vendors account for about 87% of the market. Network Appliance, Blue Coat and Cisco lead the $235 million market for secure application delivery, with 32%, 30% and 25% market share, respectively. Stratacache claims 6% of the overall market, Microsoft pulls in 4%, and the remainder falls into the “other” category.

Of the three leaders, Blue Coat experienced the most growth from 2003 to 2004 with a 77% jump in year-over-year revenue to bring the vendor to more than $70 million. Network Appliance reported about $75 million in revenue and Cisco came in at just about $60 million.

IDC credits Network Appliance's top spot with its "diversified customer base that includes large enterprise and service providers." IDC says the company will use its storage expertise to gain more momentum in this market. As for Blue Coat, this "up-and-coming vendor to watch" uses its proxy technology to provide secure and resilient network architecture to customers, IDC says.

Cisco's success comes from a variety of technologies that address this area, such as software distribution, Internet gateways and IP video delivery. IDC says Cisco is focusing on wide-area file services technology to better its market position.

As for the future, the uptake in remote and branch office applications, VoIP and storage networking will only serve to increase demand for secure content and application delivery technologies, which could cause the market to grow to $330 million by 2009, IDC says.

Ann Bednarz is associate news editor at Network World.