With the adoption of more and more multicloud and hybrid cloud services, network security saw the biggest growth, and Cisco is leading the pack, according to Canalys. Cisco continued to increase its market share and saw a growth rate of 14.3 percent, becoming the largest cyber security vendor by revenue. ““Public cloud workload still holds a small portion of overall market but is the fastest growing deployment area. Leading vendors like Cisco have embraced new deployment models to transition the business into subscription-based offerings. The availability of flexible consumption and pricing models are driving the growth in cloud transactions,” said Canalys Research Analyst, Ketaki Borade.”

According to Liza Meak, these numbers mirror the findings of Cisco’s 2019 Benchmark Study, which surveyed 3200 security leaders. CISOs reported feeling more confident that moving to the cloud will help improve their security and reduce the risk of breaches. ninety-three percent of respondents said that moving security to the cloud increased their efficiency and productivity. It was also noted that more and more CISOs reported consolidating more of their security solutions.

Other interesting findings noted by Meak were that in 2019, 79% of respondents said it was somewhat or very challenging to orchestrate alerts from multiple vendor products, which is an increase from 74% in 2018.  And in 2018, 54% of respondents had 10 or fewer vendors in their environment; in 2019 this number has risen to 63%. More respondents with fewer vendors.

Another big trend Canalys is seeing is a push towards acquisitions. Cisco was part of that trend, acquiring Duo Security last year. Duo, an Ann Arbor based privately-held company, provides multi-factor authentication delivered through the cloud. Simplicity is key for Duo, and its technology verifies the identity of users and the safety of their devices before granting them access to applications. Since the completion of the acquisition in October, Cisco and Duo have worked to integrate Cisco’s network, device and cloud security platforms, allowing customers to easily and security connect users to any application on any device.

Cisco says that we can no doubt expect security to continue to play a huge role in the future success of any business as new threats emerge. “Cisco wants to make sure that our customers are at the forefront of digital business transformation," says Gee Rittenhouse, SVP and GM of Cisco's Security Business Group. "To support them on their journey, we are fundamentally changing security by building an architecture that can securely connect any user to any application on any network. It is what is required in this modern, rapidly changing work environment. Cyber security is more crucial than ever, and we expect to see continued market growth.”