Geopolitical unrest. Uncertainty about tariffs. A tough regulatory climate. Heightened concerns about AI-generated attacks. Add it up and you get a high-anxiety, high-stress climate in which protecting enterprise assets is a top priority.
IDC predicts that global security spending will grow more than 12% in 2025.The increasing complexity and frequency of cyberthreats are driving organizations worldwide to adopt more advanced defensive measures, says IDC. As a result, security spending is expected to see sustained growth throughout the 2023-2028 forecast period, reaching $377 billion in 2028.
“Protection from cyber threats — now enhanced by AI and gen AI — is becoming an increasingly strategic issue for organizations in all industries, especially for those managing critical infrastructures, developing critical assets, or providing key services to clients and citizens,” says Stefano Perini, research manager with IDC Data and Analytics.
For most enterprises, the preferred approach to cybersecurity defense is a platform strategy that addresses the complexity and cost associated with tool sprawl, provides high levels of automation to address skills shortages, and embeds advanced capabilities to protect against AI-assisted attacks.
The 10 power players on our list come to cybersecurity from different backgrounds, but they all focus on building platforms that aggregate and analyze data, provide visibility through an easy-to-use, cloud-based management portal, and offer a high degree of automation. And all of them are integrating AI agents into their platforms.
1. Palo Alto Networks: Platform pioneer positioning pays off
Why they’re here: Three years ago, Palo Alto Networks embarked on its platformization journey with the release of its SecOps platform Cortex XSIAM, which collects and analyzes security data to provide real-time analytics and to enable advanced automation. Cortex XSIAM has been a runaway success, hitting $1B in cumulative bookings. Palo Alto followed up with Cortex Cloud, which combines cloud-native application protection platform (CNAPP) and cloud detection and response (CDR) capabilities. In April, Palo Alto announced Prisma AIRS, an AI security platform designed to protect the enterprise AI ecosystem — apps, agents, models, and data.
Power moves: In April, Palo Alto bought Protect AI, a leader in securing the use of AI and machine learning applications and models. But perhaps its biggest move to date involves CyberArk, which in July the company agreed to buy for $25B, tackling the identity management space it has long avoided.
By the numbers: $25B and $9B: In addition to the hefty price the company is paying for CyberArk, Palo Alto Networks is also predicting that fiscal 2025 total revenue will reach between $9.17B and $9.19B, representing year-over-year growth of 14%.
Outlook: Palo Alto Networks has been successful in providing an integrated security platform that addresses the issues of complexity and integration. Palo Alto’s numbers have been going through the roof — first quarter revenue grew 15% and next-gen security grew at an annual run rate of 34%.CEO Nikesh Arora said, “In Q3, we continued to make progress on our platformization strategy and achieved an important milestone in crossing $5 billion in Next-Gen Security ARR. Our scale and platform breadth makes us a leading consolidator of choice in cybersecurity.” How it will incorporate CyberArk’s technology remains to be seen, but effective intregration of identity management could prove to be “a great story,” according to Sunil Varkey, advisor at Beagle Security.
2. Microsoft: All in on agentic AI
Why they’re here: With a pipeline into OpenAI’s innovative technologies, its own public cloud (Azure), and deep hooks into enterprise customers, Microsoft is well positioned to deliver seamlessly integrated security products. The company has built out a platform that includes Microsoft Defender for cloud workload, endpoint, and Office 365 protection; Sentinel for threat intelligence and analytics; Entra ID for identity and access management; and Purview for data security and governance. Microsoft is also a leader in delivering AI-powered agents through its Microsoft Security Copilot offerings.
Power moves: Microsoft has announced several new agentic security solutions, including a phishing triage agent, an alert triage agent, a vulnerability remediation agent, a threat intelligence briefing agent, and an access optimization agent.
By the numbers: 1.4M: Microsoft, in its latest earnings report, said it now has 1.4M security customers and 900,000 of those are running more than four workloads, up 21% from a year ago.
Outlook: Microsoft’s Sentinel is a leader in the 2025 Forrester Wave for Security Analytics Platforms. And Microsoft is a leader in the latest Gartner assessment of security information and event management (SIEM) vendors. In response to some highly publicized security incidents, Microsoft has doubled down on internal security with a project called the Microsoft Secure Future Initiative. Microsoft says it has dedicated the equivalent of 34,000 engineers working full-time for 11 months to the project. Microsoft adds that the benefits extend to enterprise customers with “engineering teams across the company delivering innovation aligned with our security principles.”
3. Cisco: Converting announcements into implementations
Why they’re here: Cisco is embedding AI across its core pillars of networking, security, and observability. Building on last year’s announcement of the Hypershield AI-native security architecture, plus the integration of Splunk, which Cisco bought last year, the company “has framed its vision around helping organizations become AI-ready by embedding intelligence into infrastructure, simplifying operations, and securing increasingly complex environments. Cisco is now doubling down on making AI an operational advantage rather than an existential risk through a wave of targeted announcements,” according to Forrester analysts. These include Cisco AgenticOps (based on a deep network model LLM), Cisco AI Assistant (a conversational interface) and Cisco AI Canvas (a shared interactive workspace).
Power moves: Bought SnapAttack, a cyber threat hunting software maker.
By the numbers: 54%: Cisco reported 54% growth in security-related product revenue in its latest quarter, hitting $2.1B. (By contrast, networking was up only 8%.)
Outlook: Forrester points out that acquisition-heavy Cisco has historically struggled with a fragmented portfolio that was difficult to implement and complex to manage. The company has taken huge strides toward addressing those issues, but Forrester says, “To fully realize its vision, Cisco must accelerate its adoption strategy to transition legacy, standalone solutions to its modern, integrated platform solutions. While early feedback on innovations such as Hypershield have yielded strong positive feedback, its broader adoption remains slow.” The challenge for Cisco is to translate the onslaught of new announcements into actual implementation by enterprise customers.
4. CrowdStrike: Bouncing back from big mishap
Why they’re here: CrowdStrike has established itself as a power player with its Falcon-themed, cloud-based endpoint protection platform, threat intelligence, and incident response services. The company is a leader in the 2025 GigaOm Radar Reports for identity threat detection and response and for extended detection and response (XDR), and scored high on a Frost Radar evaluation of cloud and application runtime security. CrowdStrike has also moved quickly into AI, releasing its Charlotte AI Agentic Response and Charlotte AI Agentic Workflows.
Power moves: Acquired SaaS security provider Adaptive Shield for an estimated $300M.
By the numbers: $10B: CEO George Kurtz said that the company is on pace to hit $10B annual recurring revenues.
Outlook: Sometime a company’s finest hour comes at a time of crisis. CrowdStrike suffered an embarrassing incident last July, when a botched software update crashed Windows systems worldwide, upsetting airline flight schedules and causing untold havoc across industries from banking to healthcare. CrowdStrike quickly owned up to the mistake, fixed it, and was able to maintain customer trust. In its latest quarter, CrowdStrike announced that total revenue was up 20% to $1.1B, with annual recurring revenue growing 22% year over year.
5. Cloudflare: The Swiss Army knife of security
Why they’re here: Cloudflare’s beginnings were modest: an attempt to thwart email spammers. Today, the company claims to protect 20% of Internet traffic and has expanded in a variety of directions. Cloudflare is a visionary in Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant on SASE, a leader in the latest Forrester Wave on web application firewalls, and a leader in IDC’s Marketscape on edge delivery services. The company is also leaning into AI, using AI to predict threats and optimize traffic routing on its global network.
Power moves: Bought Outerbase, a developer database company, to enable more teams to build and deploy full-stack, AI-enabled applications on Cloudflare’s global network.
By the numbers: 27%: Cloudflare recently announced total revenue of $479.1 million, an increase of 27% year-over-year.
Outlook: According to KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Jackson Ader, “Cloudflare has shown an uncanny ability to develop, launch, and market products across such a wide range of use cases. Defining what type of company it even is has become challenging. Cloudflare began with an attempt to build a better internet in content delivery, but its rapid expansion into security, the developer ecosystem, database, storage, and compute means that it can more aptly be labeled as the network Swiss Army knife.” TD Cowen analyst Shaul Eyal adds, “Cloudflare is positioning itself as a universal ‘Switzerland’ supporting all platforms and all services in need of AI interactions between agents and platforms.”
6. Fortinet: Celebrating 25 years of stable leadership
Why they’re here: While other companies struggle to integrate disparate product lines, Fortinet has built a comprehensive security/networking platform from the ground up, starting with its own ASICs, operating system (FortiOS), AI-powered FortiGuard Labs threat intelligence service, and cloud. Fortinet is a leader in four Gartner Magic Quadrants: SD-WAN, secure service edge (SSE), enterprise wired and wireless LAN infrastructure, and secure access and service edge (SASE) platforms.
Power moves: In May, Fortinet bought Israeli startup Suridata, an innovator in SaaS security. Suridata brings a leading SaaS security posture management (SSPM) solution to enhance Fortinet’s Unified SASE security platform and cloud access security broker (CASB) capabilities.
By the numbers: 42%: Cybercriminals shared more than 100 billion stolen records on underground forums, up 42% year-over-year, according to Fortinet’s 2025 Global Threat Landscape Report.
Outlook: Fortinet is a beacon of stability in an unstable world, celebrating its 25th anniversary with the same two executives running the company, brothers Ken and Michael Xie. In its latest quarterly earnings statement, Fortinet reported total revenue of $1.5B, up 14%, a Unified SASE annual run rate up 26% and security operations annual run rate up 30%. Ken Xie, chairman and CEO, said, “Leveraging our deep expertise in networking and security convergence, a strong track record of AI-driven innovation, and seamless product development and integration through our FortiOS operating system, we have established ourselves as the leader in organic innovation and will continue setting the industry standard in cybersecurity.”
7. Zscaler: Getting into the platform game
Why they’re here: Zscaler fills an important need for organizations; providing a cloud-based service that applies zero trust principles to the inspection and protection of enterprise traffic. The Zscaler Zero Trust Exchange identifies malware, blocks threats, and enables secure connections. Zscaler is heavily invested in leveraging the power of AI, with features such as AI-powered data security classification, AI-powered application segmentation, plus protection for AI workloads and gen AI applications. Zscaler is a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for SSE.
Power moves: Bought Red Canary, a leading provider of managed detection and response technology.
By the numbers: 500B: The Zscaler cloud processes more than 500B transactions and enforces more than 25B policies per day.
Outlook: Zscaler is on a roll. In its latest quarter, revenue was up 23% year-over-year to $678M, and Zscaler is predicting that growth will remain steady at 23% for the full year. Forrester says the Red Canary acquisition represents a strategic move by Zscaler to up its “platformization” game, and to address a gap in its offerings. “Zscaler’s legacy is cloud-based network and application access control built on a Zero Trust foundation. Gaps for Zscaler include minimal visibility into endpoints, identities, and security telemetry. Red Canary plugs in and solves those issues right away, giving Zscaler even more credibility for its Zero Trust platform.”
8. Broadcom: Under-the-radar security powerhouse
Why they’re here: Broadcom’s growth these days is driven primarily by its AI chips and revenue from the VMware acquisition, but don’t sleep on Broadcom as a powerhouse security vendor. A new division, entitled Enterprise Security Group, combines Symantec and Carbon Black to form a broad offering that encompasses everything from mainframe security, endpoint detection and response (EDR), data loss prevention (DLP), to SSE. Broadcom doesn’t break out security revenue, but one sign of vendor’s commitment to a product line is investment and innovation. And Broadcom just announcedIncident Prediction, a new feature in Symantec Endpoint Security that combines AI with extensive threat intelligence to predict an attacker’s next moves.
Power moves: In May, Broadcom signed an agreement with Google to collaborate on embedding AI functionality across Broadcom’s security offerings hosted on the Google Cloud.
By the numbers: $9.3B. The amount that Broadcom invested in 2024 on R&D aimed at creating new products and services.
Outlook: Broadcom has been taking some heat for licensing changes associated with the VMware acquisition, but Broadcom has been racking up the kudos for its security offerings. Broadcom is a leader in the 2025 IDC MarketScape for worldwide DLP and a “top player” in the Radicati Group’s 2025 DLP ratings. Newsweek,in conjunction with Statista R, named Broadcom one of America’s Best Cybersecurity Companies 2025. And SE Labs recognized Broadcom as winners in enterprise endpoint protection and enterprise network detection and response.
9. Check Point Software: New momentum under new leadership
Why they’re here: More than 30 years ago, Israel-based Check Point burst on the scene with the first network firewall. Over the years, Check Point’s star faded, as brighter, hotter companies surpassed it, many of them founded by Check Point alums. But Check Point has found a second wind and is now leveraging its deep technical chops to address the new challenges posed by AI. GigaOm named Check Point a leader in attack surface management in a 2025 report. Check Point is a visionary in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for endpoint protection platforms and a leader in email security. Forrester names Check Point as a leader in zero trust platforms and enterprise firewalls.
Power moves: Legendary founder and CEO Gil Schwed passed the torch to former venture capital investor Nadav Zafrir, who officially took the helm in late 2024.
By the numbers: 7%: First quarter 2025 revenues were up 7% to $638 million.
Outlook: Under Zafrir’s leadership, Check Point is positioning itself to capitalize on the new security threats posed by AI. Zafrir said recently, “AI is beyond any human capabilities. It never sleeps or makes accidental mistakes. It’s relentless. When sent on a mission, it will use all of its powers, day and night, to penetrate any network. Using AI is like buying a weapon of mass destruction over the counter.” Check Point’s answer is its AI-driven Infinity Platform, featuring a hybrid mesh architecture, designed to protect on-prem and cloud environments through a unified management portal.
10. Okta: Power player in identity and access management
Why they’re here: No matter what an organization’s security strategy looks like, the cornerstone is always going to be identity and access control — making sure only the right people get access to what they need to do their jobs. Okta has become the gold standard for identity and access management (IAM). The company is a leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for access management, based on its multiple SaaS-delivered offerings for a variety of specific use cases. The company is also focused on protecting AI agents, with a new protocol called Cross App Access, an extension to the OAuth open-source authorization standard.
Power moves: Announced a key partnership with Palo Alto Networks designed to create a unified security architecture that improves identity-based defenses across enterprise environments.
By the numbers: 12%: First quarter fiscal 2026 revenue hit $688 million, an increase of 12% year-over-year.
Outlook: Okta suffered a major security breach in late 2023, but has successfully weathered that storm. CEO Todd McKinnon says, “Okta had a solid start to FY26 highlighted by record operating profit and another quarter of robust free cash flow. The world’s biggest organizations continue to turn to Okta to solve identity security across their workforces, customers, and AI use cases.” For the full year, Okta is expecting revenue to increase between 9% and 10% to reach around $2.85B.
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