Zscaler, Inc., the leading cloud security company, has grown to own the largest share of the cloud delivered Network-based Advanced Malware Analysis (NAMA) market according to Frost & Sullivan, an industry analyst firm that recently released a comprehensive report on the NAMA market in the Asia Pacific region.

According to the “Asia-Pacific Network-based Advanced Malware Analysis (NAMA) Solutions Market” report published in October, Frost & Sullivan forecasts that the NAMA market in Asia Pacific reached $133 million in revenue in 2015 and will grow to $940 million by 2020 as this security technology gains greater adoption. Due to the need for cost effective solutions, the analyst firm expects the cloud-based sector of the market to grow at 60 percent, outpacing by 17 percentage points the growth for on-premises solutions (expected to grow at 43 percent).

Advanced Malware and the often synonymous Advanced Persistent Threats (APT), are characterized by their ability to change and morph making them undetectable by traditional signature and reputation-based protection. If they are persistent, they can reside dormant and undetected until they are activated to carry out their attack and are also known for their ability to move laterally through a network.  Effective NAMA solutions use technologies such as sandboxing to execute files or live content in a safe environment to understand the true behavior of the code.

“The Asia Pacific market has seen a increase in the demand of cloud-based security solutions to detect and mitigate advanced malware and APTs, particularly in the countries such as Singapore, India, Australia and New Zealand,” said Charles Lim, industry principal analyst at Frost and Sullivan. “Zscaler attained a strong market share of 40.6 percent in the segment for cloud-based NAMA solutions through their continuous efforts to provide easy to deploy, scalable solutions in order to help enterprises mitigate advanced threats that cannot be detected with traditional security tools.”

“Frost & Sullivan’s report clearly shows that the threat of advanced malware is both real and growing rapidly” said Manoj Apte, Chief Strategy Officer at Zscaler. “Zscaler’s cloud-based platform is ideally suited to protect against this threat because it enables organizations to rapidly deploy a NAMA solution for all its employees no matter where they are located – in headquarters, branch office or remote – and ensure they have up-to-date cloud based protection at all times.”

The report further highlights Zscaler’s expanding role in protecting the region:

Zscaler grew by 46.9 percent on a YoY basis in the Asia- Pacific NAMA solution market and remained the fourth largest participant in the region with a market share of 13.5 percent in 2015.

Zscaler’s key markets include Australia, India and New Zealand, with market shares of 35.7 percent, 17.9 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively. These core markets recorded double digit growth rates of 75.2 percent, 91.3 percent and 50.0 percent, respectively on a YoY.

The BFSI, service provider, and manufacturing verticals were the key adopters of Zscaler APT protection. These verticals contributed the largest market share, accounting for 21.5 percent, 21.3 percent and 17.1 percent, respectively. There was also an increase in 5.2 percent adoption in other industries such as government and education across Asia-Pacific.

Cloud-based sandboxing and detection services are gaining acceptance due to the growing adoption of integrated security platforms, as opposed to the traditional security “stack,” which includes multiple devices from different vendors.

An even greater market shift has been the adoption of cloud applications and services and the increase in user mobility, which are more easily and comprehensively protected by cloud security than by on-premises equipment. As companies move their applications and data services to the cloud, they are moving their security there, too. And while the market for on-premises solutions is growing at 32.9 percent annually, the cloud-based market is growing significantly faster, at 39.5 percent.