Revenues for security appliance in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) market grew 13.8% during the second quarter of 2013 to $83.52m compared to the same period last year, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

The report found security appliance shipments during the same quarter increased 10.8% to 18,540 units.

IDC Middle East, Africa, and Turkey research analyst Faysal Ayoubi said security will be one of the most significant emerging segments of the IT sector over the next couple of years, due to incoming investments from businesses looking to secure their computing environments.

"The growth of the security appliances market is also heavily influenced by the evolution of new threats," Ayoubi added.

"Moreover, the increased adoption of virtualisation within the region’s SMB segment has driven an increase in interest in security solutions that specifically target virtual environments."

Large businesses in the MEA region are expected to implement better security appliances including intrusion prevention systems (IPS) and content management features.

SMBs in the region are expected to deploy unified applications like the unified threat management (UTM), which had a share of about 45% of themarket revenue during the quarter.

Following market trends towards converged network infrastructures and simplified IT architectures, the demand for UTM applications is expected to rise during the next five years, the analysts said.

"The market’s increasing inclination for UTM solutions means the uptake of standalone VPN devices and intrusion detection systems (IDS) is expected to remain at a minimal level over the coming years and will primarily be restricted to long-planned refresh cycles."

For the second quarter of 2013, the overall MEA security appliance market was led by Cisco with 18.4% share of total sales, followed by Fortinet with 15.1% share, while Cyberoram, Palo Alto Networks, Baraccuda, Websense, and Netasq also grew during the period.

"Increasing competition in the market, as well as an anticipated consolidation trend among the market’s players, is causing vendor focus to shift toward firewalls and security solutions that specifically address the bring-your-own-device (BYOD) phenomenon," the analysts said.

"This shift in strategy is primarily aimed at staving off competition while increasing profitability and market share."