Though Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) can add many desirable new features to business telecom systems, vendors and customers face difficult security challenges to realize these benefits, reports In-Stat. As a result, more than 75% of the companies that have implemented VoIP plan to replace their security appliances within the next year, the high-tech market research firm says. The security appliance market is poised for strong growth over the next few years, and will reach $7 billion by 2009, In-Stat forecasts.



"Traditional firewall technologies can complicate several aspects of VoIP, most notably dynamic port trafficking and Network Address Translation (NAT) transversal," says Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. "Security product vendors are adding functions that address voice applications in their products, but, as history has shown, security typically lags behind advances in technology."

A recent report by In-Stat found the following:

-- Larger, mid-sized companies (500-999) show a higher percentage of concerns about VoIP security than companies of other sizes.

-- Budgets allocated for new security appliances are significantly higher in companies that have already implemented VoIP.

-- Reliability is by far the most important criteria for the purchase of new security appliance products by businesses.

The report, "Trends and Spending Plans for Security Appliances: Are We Ready for VoIP?" (#IN0502573LN), covers the impact of VoIP in the security appliance market, including the results of an In-Stat end-user survey to discover trends in security product usage and plans for future purchases. In addition to the survey results, the report also includes vendors' market shares and a five-year forecast for security appliances.

For more information on this report, please visit: http://www.instat.com/catalog/Ncatalogue.asp?id=138 or contact Tina Sheltra at 480-609-4531 or tina.sheltra@reedbusiness.com. The report price is $2,995 (US).