3/8/2004 -- According to market research firm Synergy Research Group (SRG), the network security market grew eight percent in 2003 over 2002. SRG's research analyzed revenue from the sale of hybrid security solutions (firewall/VPN), standalone virtual private network (VPN) gateways, and intrusion detection/prevention systems (IDS/IPS).

SRG found that while sales of hybrid solutions were up 6 percent sequentially and nearly 14 percent year-over-year, sales of VPN Gateway actually fell 21 percent for the quarter, even though they finished up 17 percent for the year. Not surprisingly, IDS/IPS sales increased by 9 percent for the quarter and were up by almost 11 percent for 2003.

In the hybrid solutions market, the big winners for the quarter were Cisco, NetScreen Technologies Inc., and Nokia, according to SRG. Elsewhere, Internet Security Systems Inc. lead the IDS/IPS market, and Nortel Networks Inc. topped the VPN Gateway space. -Stephen Swoyer