Dell’Oro Group forecasts worldwide spending on network security hardware will exceed $90 billion between 2025 and 2030, driven by AI infrastructure investment and technology refresh cycles, according to a new report released on August 4.
The market research firm said hardware revenue—covering physical firewall, secure web gateway (SWG) appliance, web application firewall (WAF) and application delivery controller (ADC) appliances—is projected to grow at a 7 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over 2025–2030, up from 3.8 percent over 2020–2025.
“AI infrastructure investment and risk-led refresh cycles are restoring momentum to Network Security hardware as enterprises replace aging systems and add capacity where performance, resilience, and local control remain essential,” said Mauricio Sanchez, Sr. Director, Enterprise Security and Networking at Dell’Oro Group. “This is not a return to hardware-first architectures, but a more balanced market in which physical appliances, virtual software, and SaaS expand where they provide the strongest operational fit,” added Sanchez.
Dell’Oro said factors supporting hardware growth include end-of-support deadlines, active exploitation of aging infrastructure, rising performance requirements, digital sovereignty concerns and AI infrastructure investment.
Within the hardware segments, Dell’Oro projected firewalls will remain the largest category by revenue, exceeding $20 billion by 2030 and growing at a nearly double-digit CAGR rate over the next five years. It also forecast WAF revenue will nearly double to exceed $7 billion by 2030, citing increased AI-related API exposure and application security standardisation.
The report also points to continued growth in cloud-delivered security, with Security Service Edge (SSE) revenue forecast to double from 2025 to 2030, achieving a 16 percent revenue CAGR, as organisations expand controls for AI usage and data security across users and branches.
