Web Application Firewall Market - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)

The web application firewall market was valued at USD 3.23 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 8.06 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 16.92% during the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The current trend is to merge the ability of network vulnerability scanners with the toolkits for the web application security space. This gives the ability to use data found from one level and drive a more focused approach for the other level.

• Web-based applications and services have changed the landscape of information delivery and exchange in today’s corporate, government, and educational sectors. Due to the easy availability of information and the richness of web services, a higher reliance is placed on web-based services and firewall market for greater integration of internal information systems.
• Certain industry and government regulations require the deployment of a WAF (Web Application Firewall) solution, either explicitly or implicitly. For example, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) is a well-known and important regulation that drives WAF adoption in the market. WAF functionality can be implemented in software or hardware, running in an appliance device, or in a typical server running a common operating system.
• The main challenge to web application firewalls are cost and performance. Performance is often an issue because these tools inspect all incoming and outgoing traffic at the application layer. Each protocol, such as HTTP, SMTP, etc., requires its own proxy application, and support for new network applications and protocols can become slow to emerge.

Key Market Trends

Healthcare Sector to Witness Significant Growth

• Firewalls are the first line of defense for every healthcare network and protect EHRs (Electronic Health Record) and protected health information (PHI) from malware and other cyber attacks.
• Healthcare organizations have more than just computers and smartphones accessing the network. Connected medical devices are Wi-Fi enabled and usage of the network to collect patient data and monitor health. While hackers may not get the information they are looking for directly from connected medical devices, they can use these devices by means of remote network access as a means to freely access the entire network. Medical devices are often overlooked as a cyber security vector because they may lack traditional interfaces associated with accessing the network.
• Healthcare firewalls have to cover more ground than firewalls in other industries because of the value of EHRs and clinical data, since there are numerous ways where hackers can gain unauthorized access to the network.

North America Holds the Largest Share in Web Application Firewall Market

• Due to the security breach incidents and the presence of cyber security vendors, North America is considered the most advanced region for technology adoption and infrastructure. Awareness about the threats is a critical economic and security challenge in the region. The growing concern to ensure the protection of sensitive data has increased corresponding government intervention in recent years.
• North America is leading in terms of the higher presence of security vendors. North America is the most advanced region for cyber security technology adoption and infrastructure due to developed countries, such as the United States and Canada.
• A data breach can be prevented by using orchestration and automation tools to take in SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) alerts and enrich them with intelligence and make an analysis for the chances of risk, and communicate them to analysts with a clear picture of their significance. Establishing a robust log-on is one proactive example for regulating access control.

Competitive Landscape

The web application firewall is a fragmented market. Currently, the number of web application attacks are increasingly creating new spaces for the players and the existing players are segmented in business enterprises as small, medium, and large sector. The high rivalry is in small and medium players, by which the competitive rivalry is high in the market. Key players are Akamai Technologies Inc., F5 Networks Inc., Barracuda Networks Inc., Imperva, Inc., etc. Some of the recent developments in the market are -

• March 2019 - Akamai, the intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences announced enhancements designed to help businesses accelerate their cloud migration strategy. Since there are various challenges in cloud migration, Akamai surrounds and extends client infrastructures, leveraging the edge and advanced security to alleviate cloud challenges. These new features protect apps, content, APIs, accelerate web and mobile experiences, and help make development teams more agile as they move to the cloud.

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