A growing reliance on Web applications coupled with their vulnerability to persistent cyber-attacks are fuelling demand for Web application firewalls (WAFs) in the Asia-Pacific. The overall market growth rate is expected to peak in the next two years as the proliferation of devices connected through various channels makes organizations easier targets for cyber attackers.

New analysis from Frost & Sullivan, Asia-Pacific Web Application Firewall (WAF) Market 2013, finds that the market earned revenues of US$115.6 million in 2013 and estimates this to reach US$666.2 million in 2020 at a compound annual growth rate of 28.4 percent.

"Regulations continue to drive WAF adoption in the region. With the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard now enforced in many countries, solutions such as WAF are considered a necessity for compliance," said Cathy Huang Research Manager Frost & Sullivan Information and Communication Technologies.

Unfortunately, complexities in terms of WAF management may hold back some enterprises from investing in these solutions. This will also give an opportunity for managed security service providers to provide WAF-as-a-service, eating into the share of traditional WAF vendors.

"To avoid falling behind the competitive curve, vendors will design multi-faceted WAF solutions with capabilities extended to database security, distributed denial-of-service protection, anti-scrapping, and authentication. This integrated approach will lead to comprehensive, yet simple-to-manage, multi-layered security that can widen the consumer base in the Asia-Pacific WAF market", added Cathy Huang.
 
Nevertheless, increased competition in this highly fragmented domain will drive the market forward, as more affordable and flexible products are made available especially for small and medium businesses. Many traditional security vendors too are now offering WAF solutions as add-ons to their existing security platforms.