Businesses are buying fewer call control systems for private
branch exchanges but are spending more on security appliances
during the recession, according to analyst
Canalys.
Canalys reported that investment in call control systems, which
provide PBX telephony functionality, declined sharply in Q4. The
total lines shipped fell 11% year-on-year to 5.8 million.
"Enterprise telephony sales are primarily driven by replacement
in EMEA, and especially in Western Europe, and these are typically
large Cap-ex-based deals," said Matthew Ball, senior analyst at
Canalys. "With pressure to cut costs immediately, many sales that
were expected to close in Q4 were delayed. Businesses shifted
available budget to higher-priority IT projects. Some telephony
projects will be cancelled altogether as needs are re-evaluated and
a greater emphasis is placed on ROI in the future."
Canalys expected investment in enterprise security to remain
strong due to compliance requirements and the continued threat of
attacks. Infrastructure security investment rose, while client
security software spending continued to be scaled back.
Analyst Nikki Babatola noted that businesses were buying
security appliances to reduce the cost of IT security. "Enterprises
are looking to consolidate infrastructure and cut costs by adopting
a single appliance for all security functions. This reduces the
need for individual point products, which take up valuable space
and need a lot of power and cooling."