This should translate to significant growth for the appliance makre, which In-Stat says will reach US$7 billion by 2009.

“Traditional firewall technologies can complicate several aspects of VoIP, most notably dynamic port trafficking and Network Address Translation (NAT) transversal,” says Victoria Fodale, In-Stat analyst. “Security product vendors are adding functions that address voice applications in their products, but, as history has shown, security typically lags behind advances in technology.”

Other findings in the Trends and Spending Plans for Security Appliances: Are We Ready for VoIP? report included the result that mid-sized organisations showed more concern about VoIP security than companies of other sizes.

Also security budget allocations are significantly higher in companies that have already implemented VoIP and that reliability is by far the most important criteria for the purchase of new security appliance products by businesses.