Network Hardware - Network Firewalls

Six brands made it to the elite Users' Choice club this year, and there are two different winners, one for each employee segment. Cisco emerged as the winner in 500+ employees segment by a wide margin from runner up-SonicWALL. The 100-499 employees segment was dominated by SonicWALL, but with Cisco close on its heels. So SonicWALL needs to be more aggressive in the market if it wants to continue dominating in this segment. Incidentally, SonicWALL was acquired by Dell recently this year, which might help the company gain a stronger hold over the market. Other players that made it to the club in both employee segments include McAfee, Check Point, WatchGuard, and Fortinet.

On the brand loyalty front, 84% of users who currently own SonicWALL in companies with 100-499 employees said they're likely to buy firewalls from the same brand in the future also. The remaining 16% weren't sure which brand to switch to. Cisco on the other hand enjoyed 85% brand loyalty, but about 3% of its existing users said they were likely to shift to Check Point, and the rest weren't sure.

In the 500+ employee segment, Cisco enjoyed a whopping 94% brand loyalty, while SonicWALL had 73% loyal users. About 3% of the existing users of SonicWALL said they were likely to move to Cisco. 7% of those currently using Fortinet also said they were likely to move to Cisco, which clearly indicates the strength of Cisco in this segment. Fortinet's brand loyalty stood at just 47%, but another 47% of its existing users weren't sure which brand to switch to.

Product reliability was the key reason for using all firewalls in the Users' Choice club, and it came as the

same reason for choosing the brands for the future also.