Willie Low of IDC sees the pattern of integration and convergence in security devices continuing. He believes that in addition to the threats arriving over the network, the reduction in manpower required to administrate UTMs and integrated devices will be a major factor: "The costs of managing and administering a security product can easily outstrip the initial capital costs of the product within a short period of time," said Low. "Lack of resources will continue to be a key challenge. In many enterprises there are not enough people to manage every device and potential access point (which is increasing rapidly in most enterprises). The problem is even more acute in SMEs where they often do not have a person dedicated to IT security."

According to Brendan Leitch, the market for advanced security appliances will be driven by emerging compliance needs: "Enterprises will increasingly be under pressure from regulations, including those affecting public companies and those addressing specific industries. Comprehensive, but granular, security will be very important to satisfy these regulations by controlling who gets access to what resource in a business."