Global network security revenue surpassed $6 billion in Q3 2025 and is on track to exceed $26 billion for the full year, according to new findings from Dell’Oro Group. The research shows that cloud-delivered security continues to outpace hardware-centric segments, with Security Service Edge (SSE) and Web Application Firewalls (WAF) recording the strongest gains.
While the overall market grew 9 percent year-over-year, SSE surged 20 percent and WAF rose 12 percent, underscoring the shift in enterprise spending from on-premise appliances to cloud-native platforms designed to protect distributed users and applications.
“The gap between cloud-native agility and legacy hardware has never been starker,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Senior Director of Enterprise Security and Networking at Dell’Oro Group. “We are seeing a clear bifurcation in the market: traditional firewall appliances are growing in the low single digits as refresh cycles normalize, but the urgent demand for decentralized access and robust application protection is fueling a massive migration of value to the cloud edge.”
Key insights from Dell’Oro’s Q3 2025 Network Security Report include:
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SSE remained the strongest contributor to overall market expansion, sustaining almost 20 percent year-over-year growth as organisations accelerate adoption of zero-trust access and cloud-native inspection.
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WAF revenue grew in the mid-teens, supported by ongoing enterprise investment in application modernisation.
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Firewall appliances posted modest single-digit growth, an uptick from flat performance last quarter, indicating stabilisation in a maturing hardware segment.
Looking ahead, Dell’Oro forecasts the Network Security market will approach $29 billion in 2026, driven by continued cloud workload expansion and heightened demand for application-layer protections.
