* Juniper holds its ground in leading SSL VPN sales
The competition among SSL VPN vendors is becoming more intense, according to a recent study of which companies have sold the most SSL gear.
The Synergy Research report “SSL VPN Gateway Forecast” ranks the top six vendors for 2003 and 2004, and the results offer two interesting shifts.
First, the ranking from one to five has changed. In 2003, the pecking order from top to bottom was Juniper, Aventail, Whale Communications, F5 Networks and Symantec. In 2004, that changed to Juniper, F5, Aventail, Whale and Nortel. Symantec dropped to No. 6, but still commanded enough of the market – 3.1% – to break out of the “others” category that commands a total of 10.9%.
Only Juniper remained in the same ranking. The rest, except for F5 and Nortel both rose in rank and the rest dropped, the study says.
Juniper’s share of the market actually dropped, from 51.8% to 46.3%, but held such a commanding lead that it kept its No. 1 spot anyway. F5, which moved from fourth to second place, did so by gaining share, from 5.1% in 2003 to 12.9% in 2004. Nortel broke into the top 5 by going from 0% to 5.0%.
Symantec also gained market share, from 1.7% to 3.1%, but that gain wasn’t enough to hold on to its slot in the top five. The category “others” was also a gainer, growing from 8.3% to 10.9%.
It’s hard to know exactly all the factors that influenced these shifts, but the unmistakable point is that they occurred and that it is still unsettled which SSL VPN vendors will survive long-term and which will not. This also means an ongoing period of healthy competition during which customers will enjoy choice and the cost benefits of competition.
