IT news might be bad in almost every corner of the industry, but one industry segment seems better fit to ride out the recession than most. Sales of security appliances to various business sectors in Western Europe grew revenue a total of 14.4 percent in 2008 as compared to 2007, but that growth slacked off a bit in the fourth quarter; sales rose only 10.1 percent. Those are solid numbers in any economic climate, and particularly in this one.

The increase in total revenue was not spread evenly across the top five vendors. Fortinet reported 29.5

percent revenue growth from 2007-2008, followed by Cisco (20.5 percent) and “other” (18.7 percent). Nokia and Secure Computing eked out smaller gains of 6.6 percent and 2.3 percent,

respectively, while Juniper fell off a cliff. Company revenue dropped 17 percent year-on-year, which helps explain why everyone else grew at such a high rate.

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[From Report: IT not scrimping on security during recession]