Industry continues shift to SaaS -based network security

Mauricio Sanchez, research director for the DellOro Group, notes that more enterprises are adopting virtual- and software-as-a-service-based network security offerings, which he describes as a seismic shift in how enterprises consume network security technology, according to SDxCentral. According to the DellOro Group, the virtual network security market comprising firewalls, security service edge, secure web gateway, and web application firewalls saw growth of over 20% year-over-year, reflecting a preference for non-hardware network security services that are likely to continue in the future as more organizations recognize the superiority of cloud-based delivery models, according to Sanchez. DellOro reports that the top three leaders of the virtual network security market are Zscaler, Akamai, and Palo Alto Networks. Sanchez notes that vendors are pursuing innovations to address persisting pain points in enterprise network security, which he says stem from transitions either from on-premises to the cloud or between different cloud environments. These issues are cloud workload security, which encompasses functions and tools such as cloud workload protection platforms and cloud-native application protection platforms; and security for distributed cloud networking.