Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro, and Kaspersky achieved channel “champion” status in Canalys’ latest cybersecurity matrix.

The 2021 Cybersecurity Leadership Matrix named nine overall champions with Cisco, Juniper Networks, ESET, and Fortinet reaffirming their positions while Check Point and Sophos joined the list. On the flip side, Canalys classified Symantec and McAfee as “Stragglers.” 

Cybersecurity spending continues to grow. Despite the economic downturn from the COVID-19 pandemic, Canalys estimates that the shipments were up 9.7% year over year to $53.3 billion in 2020. The company’s latest forecast predicts it will increase again by 11.4% to about $59.3 billion this year. 

“Cybersecurity spending remained robust during the pandemic and is set to accelerate this year due to awareness of high-profile hacks and the surge in ransomware attacks,” wrote Canalys chief analyst Matthew Ball in an email to SDxCentral.

For 2022, Ball expects spending will focus on key areas including the rollout of SASE deployments over multiple phases, identity solutions such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), and investment in detection and response as part of extended detection and response (XDR) strategies. These solutions provide vulnerability assessments, security for cloud workloads and Office 365 rollouts, and a refresh of existing cybersecurity deployments. 

And, “from a vendor-partner perspective, vendors will continue to invest in enabling partners to sell across their portfolios, differentiate via specializations and training, shift business models to subscriptions and managed services,” he added. 

According to Ball, the Canalys Leadership Matrix is two dimensional. The nine highlighted “Champions” earned their places by boasting the highest channel partner ratings and showing the most improvement in ratings over the last 12-months (July 2020 to June 2021), on top of strong ratings the previous year. 

Palo Alto Networks’ showed a strong cybersecurity market presence in 2020 with a 6.8% market share and an 18.3% shipment growth, and its 2021 rating skyrocketed to 77.3%. The company launched the NextWave 3.0 Partner Program earlier this year to add specializations and incentives on registered deals for its Prisma secure access service edge (SASE) platform, Prisma Cloud, and Cortex XDR/XSOAR. 

Trend Micro had a 2.8% market share and a 6.8% shipment growth last year along with a 78.8% rating this year. The company accelerated its software-as-a-service-based model transition in the past 12 months and focused on key emerging areas including securing cloud migration and hybrid security via cloud marketplaces.

Kaspersky achieved the highest vendor benchmark rating at 87.5% along with 0.9% market share and 5.7% shipment growth in 2020. It scored high in pricing speed and competitiveness, as well as quality of account management. Expanding its managed service provider ecosystem remains a strategic priority. In the last 12 months, its number of certified partners increased 35%, deal registration revenue grew 33%, and rebates payout were four times faster than the year before.

Cisco remained the largest vendor in the cybersecurity channel with an 8% market share and a 3.8% shipment growth in 2020. Its rating was 68.9% in 2021. The company restructured its cybersecurity business focusing on zero trust, SASE, and XDR under the Cisco Secure brand, and continued to transition partnership programs to SaaS, managed services, cloud solutions, and customer lifecycle management. 

Canalys also classified Check Point, ESET, Fortinet, Juniper Networks, and Sophos as “Champions.”

Canalys calls vendors that gaining market share “Growers,”  and it positioned six vendors in the “Growers” segment this year. These include Acronis, Bitdefender, CrowdStrike, F5, Microsoft, and WatchGuard. 

The matrix classified IBM and SonicWall as “Contenders” in the 2021 edition. According to Canalys, channel partners rate them highly, but these vendors might face some challenges in channel sentiment decline or market performance.

Canalys placed the remaining two vendors, Symantec and McAfee, into the “Stragglers” segment, since these vendors have lower partner sentiment or underperformed compared with their peers. They might suffer a decline or lose share over the last 12 months, the firm says.