Global security solutions market set to cross $100b this year

INFORMATION and data is an attractive commodity and businesses need to guard their networks and protect their servers.

Failure is not an option as we’ve seen in the recent past, with companies spiraling to bankruptcy after discovering they’ve been hacked.

As a result, they’ve decided to increase spending on security. Now.

A new IDC study reported that worldwide spending on security-related products in the enterprise world will reach US$103.1 billion this year, an increase of 9.4 percent from last year.

The pace of growth for security-related products is expected to continue for the next several years as industries invest heavily in security solutions to meet a wide range of threats and requirements.

In the longer-term, IDC expects worldwide spending on security solutions to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.2 percent over the 2018-2022 forecast period and reach a grand total of US$133.8 billion in 2022.

While the growth in spending is clear, it’s interesting to note that prices of security solutions haven’t particularly increased in the past year or so. Instead, demand is growing at a rapid rate.

Even the smallest of organizations are looking for ways to protect their business given the amount of data they collect and the regulatory implications of not getting cybersecurity right.

Truth be told, in the long-term, spending on security-solutions is expected to only grow more exponentially as the number of endpoints increase — which is bound to happen as the internet of things (IoT) becomes a reality.

Speaking with insiders in the security industry, Tech Wire Asia believes spending on such products will double over five year period once 5G makes its way into the world and acts as the catalyst for the proliferation of IoT.

Which industries are most concerned about security?

The three industries that will spend the most on security solutions in 2019 – banking, discrete manufacturing, and federal/central government – will invest more than US$30 billion combined.

Three other industries, namely, process manufacturing, professional services, and telecommunications will each see spending greater than US$6 billion this year.

The industries that will experience the fastest spending growth over the forecast period, according to IDC, will be state/local government (11.9 percent CAGR), telecommunications (11.8 percent CAGR), and the resource industries (11.3 percent CAGR).

This spending growth will make telecommunications the fourth largest industry for security spending in 2022 while state/local government will move into the sixth position ahead of professional services.

“Regardless of industry, these [security] technologies remain an investment priority in virtually all enterprises, as delivering a sense of security is everyone’s business,” said IDC Customer Insights and Analysis VP Jessica Goepfert.

What kind of security solutions do businesses want?

Managed security services will be the largest technology category in 2019 with firms spending more than US$21 billion for around-the-clock monitoring and management of security operations centers.

It’s why IDC believes managed security services will be the largest category of spending for each of the top five industries this year.

The second largest technology category in 2019 will be network security hardware, which includes unified threat management, firewalls, and intrusion detection and prevention technologies.

The third and fourth largest investment categories will be integration services and endpoint security software.

IDC’s analysts believe that the technology categories that will see the fastest spending growth over the forecast will be managed security services (14.2 percent CAGR), security analytics, intelligence, response and orchestration software (10.6 percent CAGR), and network security software (9.3 percent CAGR).

“Organizations are turning to managed security service providers (MSSPs) to deliver a wide span of security capabilities and consulting services […] necessary to overcome the security challenges happening today as well as prepare organizations against future attacks,” explained IDC Infrastructure Services Senior Research Analyst Martha Vasquez.

At the end of the day, the reality is that spending on cybersecuity is key, because failure to protect data could cost businesses up to US$5.2 trillion over the next five years.

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