SOFTWARE security appliance firm Equiinet has been named Europe's leading supplier of multi-functional server appliances.

New research from technology analysts IDC and Gartner Dataquest into small business server appliance shipments in 2001 shows Swindon-based Equiinet in first place, with 27.3 per cent of the total, with French manufacturer Right Vision and Sun Microsystems' Cobalt unit in second and third places respectively.

IDC examined multi-functional server appliance sales in western Europe in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Again Equiinet comes out ahead of the field, with 31 per cent of all units shipped. It also concludes that multi-functional, 'all-in-one' server appliances are very much a European phenomenon, with a number of European companies such as Equiinet and Right Vision leading the way.

Serial entrepreneur Bob Jones, managing director of Equiinet, who bought the company back after its parent went into liquidation, said: "These findings demonstrate the progress Equiinet has made and it underlines my belief that technology start-ups in Europe can grow to compete with the best the US has to offer.

"America doesn't have a monopoly on great technology."

Mr Jones said that Equiinet was aggressively pursuing new European markets to build on existing strength in the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany.

Equiinet's NetPilot family of secure server appliances offer small and medium-sized enterprises a range of benefits, including multi-user internet access, controlled email and web browsing, VPN connectivity, an accredited firewall, anti-virus capabilities and local caching, all within an easy-to-install device with multiple WAN interfaces.