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Check Point Software

Check Point was the pioneer of the firewall software market, and it has retained market leadership in the teeth of assaults from Cisco Systems, McAfee and Symantec. It has achieved this by a singular focusing firewall, while expanding only cautiously into closely related markets such as virtual private networks (VPN). As the firewall market has matured and become saturated, that has began to limit potential. The flagship product remains Firewall-1, a high-end enterprise level firewall, complemented by Firewall-1 GX for GPRS wireless network security; VPN-1 for corporate virtual private networking (VPN) security; and Floodgate-1 for VPN quality of service.
Key products: Firewall-1, Floodgate-1, ZoneAlarm.

Cisco Systems

Although Cisco PIX is second only to Check Point in the firewall market, Cisco is not commonly associated with security. However, the networking giant has progressively expanded into intrusion detection and virtual private network (VPN) security, and has started offering managed security through designated third-party service providers.
Key products: Cisco PIX.

Computer Associates

Over the past half decade security has become one of the core areas of focus of Computer Associates (CA) . Within its eTrust suite are products for identity management, which encompasses single sign-on and policy management and a Threat Management line providing a comprehensive range of anti-hacker applications, including intrusion detection and assessment tools. While not as well known for antivirus software as McAfee and Symantec, CA's eTrust and VET Antivirus packages are regular winners of the Virus Bulletin's 100% award for protecting against all known viruses.
Key products: eTrust Identity Management, Threat Management and Antivirus.

IBM Tivoli

IBM's 2002 acquisitions of Access360 and Metamerge (for metadirectory management) moved it squarely into the access control and identity management markets with the resulting suite Tivoli Identity Manager. Other key packages offer security management through Tivoli Intrusion Manager and Tivoli Risk Manager. On a more opportunistic mode, the Tivoli Security Compliance Manager promises to address compliance with the increasingly long list of government and corporate security standards and regulations.
Key products: IBM Tivoli Identity Manager, IBM Tivoli Access Manager.

Internet Security Systems (ISS)

A pioneer of intrusion detection for the past decade, ISS has arguably the most comprehensive line-up in this segment of the security market. RealSecure intrusion detection remains the company's flagship, but its May 2001 acquisition of NetworkICE added innovative intrusion prevention technology and the RealSecure PC firewall. Email and web filtering and vulnerability assessment tools complete the line-up. In common with its main rival Symantec, ISS also offers managed security services.
Key products: BlackICE, RealSecure, Proventia.

Juniper Networks

Like its main competitor Cisco, Juniper is best known as a networking equipment supplier, rather than a supplier of security appliances. However, that changed with the February 2004 purchase of firewall appliance maker NetScreen for an eye-popping $4 billion. It also provides intrusion prevention products intended to provide protection against worms, viruses and Trojan horses.
Key products: NetScreen.

McAfee (formerly Network Associates)

McAfee is one of a handful of companies that tried - and failed - to become a security suite vendor that could offer the whole gamut of security software technology. Today, virtually all the enterprise security products are gone and company concentrates on its flagship antivirus technology, which shares market leadership with Symantec's Norton line. This is bolstered by anti-spam, anti-spyware and PC firewall applications.
Key products: McAfee Internet Security Suite.

Microsoft

Microsoft has arguably done more than any other company to demonstrate the importance of computer security, although it has few products that could be classified as pure security products. Systems Management Server (SMS) suite can be used to automate the roll-out of software patches and the Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer is a useful tool for users of Windows systems to assess their level of security. In common with a slew of vendors, Microsoft also offers identity management technology, but this has been criticised by analysts for the product's limited capabilities. Furthermore, the company's June 2003 acquisition of Romanian antivirus software supplier GeCad has yet to bear fruit.
Key products: Systems Management Server, Microsoft Baseline Security Analyzer, Microsoft Identity Integration Server.

Netegrity

With its SiteMinder, IdentityMinder and TransactionMinder products, Netegrity has risen to the top of the identity and access management software segment. With a runrate that should give it revenues of over $100 million in 2004, the company can justifiably lay claim to be the largest in that its sector - and not just in revenue terms. Analysts at the Meta Group recently ranked the company as the leader based on its functionality for user authentication, authorisation, and user-delegated administration software (activities Meta groups as 'single sign on').
Key products: SiteMinder, IdentityMinder and TransactionMinder

Novell

Identity management has been a natural outgrowth of Novell's strength in directory software, and the company can boast one of the comprehensive line-ups in this segment. "Novell has the richest set of identity management solutions, and while it isn't as noticeable on the marketing side as IBM, it still does more business in this area than almost any other vendor," says Forrester's Jonathan Penn. However, Novell's BorderManager firewall is very much an also-ran in a market dominated by Check Point and Cisco.
Key products: Nsure Identity Manager, BorderManager.

RSA Security

RSA is one of the best-known names in the computer security industry for its pioneering work in encryption. However, two-thirds of RSA's $260 million in annual revenues is derived from its SecurID authentication tokens. Although highly profitable and a surprisingly durable business - more than 16 million SecurID tokens have been sold to date - it is a market in long-term decline as commodity smartcards take over this element of the access control market.
Key products: SecurID, RSA BSAFE and RSA Keon.

Symantec

Once best-known as a PC development tools vendor, for over half a decade, Symantec has successfully refocused on enterprise security. After a string of acquisitions Symantec has one of the broadest product sets in the sector for both business and consumers, covering security event management, antivirus, vulnerability assessment, intrusion protection, firewall/VPM and content filtering. However, while its acquisition spree has endowed it with an enviable breadth and product portfolio, it is not a market leader in any of its targeted sectors, with the exception of antivirus. Indeed, despite its aggressive acquisition binge, it remains highly dependent on Norton Anti-Virus for the lion's share of its sales.
Key products: Norton Anti-Virus, Enterprise Security Manager, Incident Manager.