Information Age: News, analysis & insight for IT & business leaders

3Com

The acquisition of TippingPoint in January 2005 takes 3Com back into contention with networking leaders Cisco and Juniper by adding intrusion prevention to its switches. Also active in the VoIP Security Alliance, set to be a growth area for network security.

BT

BT's managed security services were boosted by its 2004 acquisition of Infonet. Its global team conducts risk assessments to help security companies define security policies and trains security officers to make sure those controls are maintained. It also conducts voice recognition, data mining and analysis for fraud detection.

Check Point Software

Check Point pioneered firewall software, but as security giants Cisco, Symantec and McAfee have edged down its share of that market, it has expanded its offering beyond the perimeter with its InterSpect internal security gateway appliance, its high-end security management tool Provider-1, and Web Intelligence for web applications.

Cisco

Self-proclaimed pioneer of the 'self-defending network', Cisco has led the network security market with a steady 30% revenue share since 2002. While analysts gripe that its products could be better integrated, its dominance of the market has been achieved by a broad product suite that is easier to manage than best-of-breed solutions.

Computer Associates

CA is settling down after the accounting scandals and management instability of recent years. It is seeking to help customers manage one of the broadest security portfolios on the market by integrating security tools with its Unicenter systems management suite. Its eTrust Security Management Architecture uses an XML core for policy creation and authentication.

Cybertrust

The merger of Betrusted, TruSecure and Ubizen in 2004 created Cybertrust, which claims to be the world's largest privately held security company. It offers identity management, PKI, reporting and management products, as well as managed services and consultancy. Its independent ICSA Labs arm certifies commercial security products.

IBM

The security focus of IBM's Tivoli division is identity management, backed up by its Intrusion Manager and Risk Manager offerings. In 2004 IBM gave into user pressure to join the Liberty Alliance, a standards body for federated identity management.

Internet Security Systems

ISS pioneered the intrusion detection market and touts research as a strong point, with its Xforce development labs contributing to a growing business of managed services and vulnerability assessment. Its Proventia appliance, which makes up around half of its revenues, saw ISS move into intrusion prevention, a market it co-leads with Cisco.

Juniper Networks

Juniper entered the security market with the 2004 acquisition of firewall appliance maker NetScreen Technologies. With products such as 5GT, its integrated wireline and wireless firewall, IPSec VPN and antivirus appliance, it is aiming for a secure 'network in a box'. Infonetics Research places it third by revenue in the 2004 network security market, behind Cisco and Check Point.

McAfee

Antivirus, firewall and email hygiene vendor McAfee has seized the opportunity to broaden its enterprise offering with its 'business grade' anti-spyware system, which Forrester says leads the market with a 42% share - albeit before Microsoft entered the fray. It is also expanding its managed services.

MessageLabs

Messaging security and managed services giant MessageLabs has over 10,000 customers. It claims an industry first by offering service level agreements to its outsourcing customers, with guarantees to block 95% of spam, with less than 0.0004% false positives.

Microsoft

Microsoft is poised to make big inroads into the security market through its dominance of the desktop operating system and its recent acquisitions of anti-spyware specialist Giant and server antivirus and anti-spam vendor Sybari Software. Rivals claim these are not enterprise-class products, but Microsoft will build security capabilities into existing products, most notably the next Windows release but also ISA Server and Active Directory.

Novell

Novell is tipped by analysts to make a comeback in the identity management space, where it already has a strong offering as a result of its directory software. However, its firewall and VPN products have struggled.

RSA Security

Cryptography pioneer and now identity and access management leader, RSA, is now focusing on pushing its SecurID authentication tokens beyond the enterprise to consumers, through customers such as AOL and Credit Suisse bank, with the ultimate aim of creating communities of federated identity.

Symantec

Symantec's string of acquisitions in 2004 - including anti-spam leader Brightmail and consultancy @stake - was crowned in 2005 with the unprecedented purchase of storage giant Veritas, making it the fourth largest software company in the world. Investors remain unconvinced but security analysts have largely welcomed the deal, while warning that most companies' storage and security strategies lag far behind Symantec's ambitious 'information integrity' vision.

Sun Microsystems

The tenth incarnation of Sun's Solaris operating system boasted military-grade security, and identity management and authentication, are key parts of its Java System portfolio.

Trend Micro

A Japanese provider of network antivirus and Internet content security software and services, Trend was picked out by IDC as gateway antivirus market leader for the fifth consecutive year in 2004. It has recently moved into appliances and mobile device security.

VeriSign

Infrastructure services giant VeriSign has a substantial security portfolio, focusing on token-based authentication and managed services but also encompassing email hygiene and PKI. Its SSL certificates provide encrypted communications to thousands of ecommerce websites, intranets and extranets.