The Web Application Firewall Forecast: 2007 To 2010

Web application firewalls (WAFs) — an emerging technology that blocks attacks on Web applications — have been thrust into the spotlight by Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard requirements. Their sales have more than doubled during the last two years, and Forrester expects that pace of growth to continue through 2008 with market revenue topping out at $184 million in 2009, followed by a slowdown due to competitive pressures and the passing of the PCI implementation deadline. The challenge for vendors is to educate the market on the need for their product and to prove its cost-effectiveness. You need to act fast because the future of WAFs as a standalone product is short-lived — it will be consolidated with other network security and application delivery tools such as load balancers and application accelerators and commodities.