SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Service providers in North America, Europe, and Asia plan to invest heavily in VPNs over the next year, and many will also invest significantly in intrusion prevention and next generation firewall technology, according to a new study released today by Infonetics Research, Service Provider Plans for VPNs and Security, North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific 2004.
"Providers in North America, Europe, and Asia agree on one thing: the revenue, and more importantly the profit, that managed VPNs and security represent is too tempting to pass up, but architecting a service that appeals to customers en-masse is more of an art than a science," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research. "VPN services are by far their largest source of VPN/security service revenue, so they will definitely continue investing in VPN technology. And as they do, MPLS, SSL, and IPSec all fair well."
Infonetics' study examines the implementation plans of the three types of service providers that sell managed VPNs and security services in North America, Europe, and Asia: incumbents (RBOCs, IXCs, and MSOs), competitive providers (ISPs, CLECs, etc.), and specialized providers. Formal interviews with 23 carriers that generate over half of the world's managed VPN and security services revenue were conducted for this study. Briefings and ongoing discussions with all types of managed VPN and security service providers and VPN and security product manufacturers were conducted for the study as well.
Sample study findings:
Keeping up with new security threats is the leading technical challenge faced by carriers participating in the study, followed by finding integrated security management systems
Technologies perceived by respondents to be the best designed to handle rapidly changing security attacks include intrusion prevention, stateful inspection firewalls, and application firewalls
SSL is on the rise: In response to customer demand, most of the carriers interviewed are using SSL for remote access VPNs by January 2005
Layer 3 MPLS has finally arrived: 70% of respondents use it to build site-to-site VPN services by 2005; IPSec stays even at 78%, while IPSec over MPLS doubles to 57% in 2005
Providers in Europe and Asia are slightly ahead of North American providers in deployment of MPLS, as many of them have fewer legacy networks to deal with
The study is designed to help product manufacturers understand the state of managed security and VPN services and the opportunities to sell to providers serving these markets, and covers:
VPN and security services and revenue
IPSec, MPLS, and SSL-based services
Business and technical challenges
VPN and security technologies used
Critical VPN and security CPE features
Critical features for network-based VPN and security products
Provisioning and management
Preferred VPN and security manufacturers
Manufacturer selection criteria
Infonetics Research Inc.