Global network security appliances sales are expected to increase 21 per cent within a year, according to Infonetics Research.

Sales showed a less impressive increase of one per cent to $1bn between the second and third quarters of this year, but are expected to rise to a total of $6bn by 2008.

The report predicts that over the next three months Cisco will lead the overall market with a 35 per cent share, followed by Check Point (10 per cent) and Juniper (eight per cent).

By 2008 VPN and firewall appliances and software will make up 77 per of revenue, with IDS/IPS at 14 per cent, followed by gateway anti-virus at nine per cent. By 2008, IDS/IPS will make up 15 per cent and gateway anti-virus 12 per cent.

"There is a lot of talk in the security market about network access control (NAC)," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst at Infonetics Research.

"NAC is really the holy grail of network security, and is no simple feat as it will impact all types of products, from client software, to security appliances, to network infrastructure, to the back-end. NAC implementations will drive purchases of network integrated security products, SSL VPN products, and an emerging category of NAC controller appliances, all of which we will track closely with this service moving forward."