The temptation of casual, non-business related, surfing and the general abuse of company internet access poses a serious threat to employee productivity.
This problem is exacerbated by the misuse of the internet to download copyright protected or discriminatory and offensive material which can potentially compromise business operations. The resulting vulnerability to legal action is a major headache for IT directors and increasingly attracts board level attention.
Many vendors assert that internet usage declines sharply in the immediate aftermath of monitoring software implementation. This reduction is believed to represent the cessation of internet activity that employees are reluctant to be associated with.
A new study by Frost & Sullivan gives credence to the growing trends towards maximum protection from the threats of harmful and inappropriate content, forecasting sales in the world market for web filtering solutions to grow from $247.2 million in 2002 to $776.9 million in 2007. Vendors’ results are being buoyed by heightened awareness of the need for employee control by some corporations.
The market for Web filtering or URL blocking covers all technology designed to monitor and guide ongoing patterns of user behaviour at the workplace or at home, primarily children, according to a predetermined policy. The technology relies on compiled databases and intelligent software that recognises certain attributes of web pages, such as scanning for skin tones to combat pornography, and can understand ambiguous meaning of sexually-explicit words.
Media coverage of legal or disciplinary proceedings and high-profile dismissals as a consequence of downloading illegal or sensitive material acts as a key stimulus for growing uptake of web filtering solutions.
“Cases of employees suing their company for harassment following exposure to inappropriate websites, including pornographic and racist pages, are becoming more commonplace. URL blocking is now seen as one way that companies can balance the legitimate use of the internet for business purposes and avoid legal action for allowing employees access to offensive material in the workplace,” reports Jose Lopez, Industry Analyst at Frost & Sullivan.
The preservation of corporate bandwidth in light of employees needlessly downloading picture, audio or streaming files, is further fuelling appetite for web filtering measures in order to reduce the administrative IT burden, the volume of IT equipment needed and the mounting cost of internet access.
Still, Frost & Sullivan’s study concedes that companies have more immediate security and infrastructure requirements. Mr Lopez reports that URL blocking and its derivatives are not regarded as the highest priority for many companies. “Many companies still need to invest heavily in network and other security products, such as anti-virus software. A prevailing confidence amongst employers in the ability of their workforce to use the internet responsibly diminishes the urgency of implementing web filtering solutions,” he continues.
Websense and SurfControl reign supreme in the world web filtering market, jointly accounting for a market share in excess of 40 per cent. Other key vendors under review in Frost & Sullivan’s study include Secure Computing, Symantec, N2H2, 8e6 Technologies, Webwasher and Elron Software. The list of other strong players profiled comprises Clearswift, NetIQ, Cobion, Vericept, Bernard Software, Re-Soft, Security Software Systems Inc (SSSI), Filterlogix, Wavecrest Computing and GFI Software.
The global web filtering solutions market has witnessed an impressive growth by the two top players in 2002, which is expected to be replicated by some of the second tier vendors in 2003. The ability of the second tier vendors to capture some of the large enterprise accounts and compete more aggressively with the market leaders will determine their sustainability in the future.
The market is largely dominated by specialist vendors, some of which are entirely committed to web filtering. All vendors active in this sector are considering different revenue opportunities such as instant messaging (IM) and peer-to-peer (P2P), which appear to be the key to portfolio expansion.
Presently, the main thrust of revenues in the global web filtering marketplace is generated in the US. The North American market is expected to retain its stronghold on the global web filtering market. Europe is significantly lagging behind, and the rest of the regions under review in Frost & Sullivan’s study - except for China, South Korea and Japan - show no signs of commitment towards the adoption of these solutions.
Mr Lopez explains that the leading contenders in this space are not amongst the largest players in the security space. “This is quite significant as these companies are not facing the same challenges as the more established players in the market and, hence, filtering vendors are able to tap into their customer bases. Even Symantec, who is the largest security vendor in the world, does not seem to be gaining ground in the web filtering space. However, we believe that this situation is likely to change in the future,” he adds.
The attractive growth rates currently witnessed in the global web filtering solutions market will be wooing the likes of Microsoft, Computer Associates, Cisco and other security players who operate in the anti-virus, email filtering and gateway security market, into offering their own solutions instead of partnering with the existing players. This trend will lay the foundation for a degree of consolidation in the market over the next couple of years.
Nonetheless, the prospects of consolidation should not hamper opportunities for new players to emerge and become a local champion like Webwasher in Germany, especially in Continental Europe and Asia, where the market is less than saturated.
Price: US$ 5,000
Publication Date: July 2003
Report Code: B247
Background
Frost & Sullivan is an international marketing consulting company that monitors a comprehensive spectrum of high-tech markets for trends, market measurements and strategies. This ongoing research is utilised to complement a series of research publications to support industry participants with customised consulting needs. Interviews and free executive summaries are available to the press.
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