Network Security Market Tops $7 Billion in Q1 as Agentic AI Drives 14% Growth
Updated
Updated · delloro.com · Jun 9
Network Security Market Tops $7 Billion in Q1 as Agentic AI Drives 14% Growth
1 articles · Updated · delloro.com · Jun 9
Summary
$7 billion-plus in first-quarter 2026 revenue marked a 14% year-over-year rise in the global network security market, with Dell'Oro pointing to sustained enterprise spending.
Agentic AI demand is shifting budgets toward fewer policy planes that can enforce consistent controls across users, applications, clouds, branches and customer-managed environments.
SSE led major segments with 22% growth, followed by WAF at 20% and firewalls at 9%, signaling stronger demand for cloud-delivered access, API and bot protection, and hybrid enforcement.
Physical firewalls still anchor throughput and local segmentation, but virtual, SaaS and hybrid models are gaining importance as enterprises extend policy across distributed infrastructure.
The broader trend suggests network security buyers are prioritizing software and cloud-based platforms that reduce policy sprawl while supporting AI-adjacent workflows and application modernization.