Nortel continues its rapid growth in SSL VPN arena

Quarterly rankings for SSL VPN gateways are out from Synergy Research and show that Nortel is continuing its rapid growth in this area.

The study measures sales for the third quarter of 2005 and translates that into the share of the total market that each vendor took in. It also describes in qualitative terms how each company’s growth for the quarter compares to the average for all vendors.

The average growth for all vendors was 40% and Nortel was credited with a “much greater than market” increase over the third quarter of 2004. While Synergy didn’t release the percentage growth this quarter it did for the second quarter, and that number was 53%.

Nortel’s performance won it a ranking of No. 3 in overall sales for the quarter, capturing 11.4% of all SSL gateway revenue. Juniper was ranked No. 1 with a whopping 27.6%, and F5 captured the No. 2 spot with18.5%. Aventail (10.7%), Whale (8.8%) and Array (5.8%) rounded out the top six. The remaining 29.6% of revenue was taken in by others not listed by name.

The rankings remained the same between the second and third quarters.

The author of the study, analyst Aaron Vance, notes that Juniper’s growth in SSL gateway revenue is waning, having lost more than 50% of its 2003 market share. This can be taken as a sign that the SSL VPN gateway market is maturing with later entrants in the market catching up with early, quality vendors such as Juniper.

As the market continues to mature, the chances of those ranked among “other” to ever break into the top five fades.