The Top 6 Network Security Appliance Brands In Q2 2018

Lax Security
The network security hardware market's sales slipped a bit in the second quarter as major vendors such as Cisco Systems and Palo Alto Networks consolidated their power at the expense of smaller competitors, according to stats from the NPD Group.

Network security vendors sold about $301.6 million in appliances through the channel in the second quarter, down from $309.6 million in the same period a year ago, according to The NPD Group. The NPD Group tracks monthly technology sales-out information from the largest IT distributors and resellers in North America, down to the item level and with overlap removed. The declines were felt most by Blue Coat Systems, F5 Networks and Fortinet, while Palo Alto Networks and Cisco Systems posted significant gains, according to NPD's stats.

Vendors outside the top six listed in NPD's report saw sales decline a collective 26.4 percent, NPD said. Here are the six best-selling network security hardware brands of the second quarter.

6. Blue Coat Systems
Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Blue Coat has been part of security powerhouse Symantec since 2016. The company's network security hardware sales through the channel totaled $10.6 million in the second quarter, down about 43 percent from the same period a year ago, when sales totaled $18.7 million, according to NPD's data. There were no Blue Coat appliances among the quarter's top 10 sellers, NPD said.

5. F5 Networks

F5 Networks, the Seattle-based network application delivery vendor, sold about $17.6 million in network security appliances through the channel in the second quarter, NPD said. That total is a 29 percent decline from the $24.8 million in channel sales the company's security appliance business brought in the same period the prior year, NPD said. F5 did not have any appliance in NPD's ranking of the 10 top-selling products of the quarter.

4. SonicWall
Firewall power player SonicWall sold about $23.5 million in network security appliances through the channel in the second quarter, according to NPD. The San Jose, Calif., company, independent for about two years after breaking off from Dell Technologies in 2016, saw roughly the same sales figure in the same period a year ago, NPD said. The company was helped by strong sales of its TZ Series five-port appliance, which was the eighth-best selling unit of the quarter, NPD said.

3. Fortinet
Sunnyvale, Calif., security software vendor Fortinet sold about $24.4 million in network security appliances through the channel in the second quarter, NPD said. That's about a 10 percent decline from the same period a year ago, when the company sold about $27.3 million in appliances, according to NPD. No Fortinet products cracked the top 10 best-selling appliances of the quarter, NPD said.

2. Cisco Systems

Cisco Systems was the quarter's growth champion, posting $77.2 million in network security appliance sales through the channel in the period, beating the year-ago quarter's total of $62.3 million by about 24 percent, according to NPD. The San Jose, Calif., networking behemoth's growth came as it dominated the list of the quarter's top-selling products, claiming the top five positions, as well as the seventh, ninth and 10th places, according to NPD. The company's ASA and MX lines were particularly strong.

1. Palo Alto Networks
With $94.2 million in network security appliance sales in the quarter, Palo Alto Networks was the best-selling network security appliance brand of the second quarter, according to NPD. Palo Alto Networks’ sales total was an 18.3 increase over its total from the same period the year before, NPD said. The Santa Clara, Calif., company's PA-220 appliance was the sixth-best selling unit of the quarter, according to NPD.