Analyst firm Gartner have just released its Forecast Analysis: Information Security, Worldwide, 2Q15 Update. The forecast states that worldwide spending on information security will reach a whopping $75.4 billion, up almost 5% over 2014.
Government initiatives, increased legislation and high-profile breaches are driving up costs, says Gartner. The following areas, however, provide the strongest growth opportunities:
- Security testing;
- IT outsourcing; and
- Identity and access management.
Elizabeth Kim, research analyst at Gartner explained:
Interest in security technologies is increasingly driven by elements of digital business, particularly cloud, mobile computing and now also the Internet of Things, as well as by the sophisticated and high-impact nature of advanced targeted attacks.
The growing awareness of security threats, along with a keener sense of the damage they can unleash, keep IT security top of mind. Recent breaches, such as those suffered by health insurer Anthem, adult dating site Ashley Madison, DIY store Home Depot or financial firm Morgan Chase have shown us the consequences of being a victim of a large-scale security attack.
The issue is that the industry is largely made up of mature technologies where market penetration is high. The analyst firm says that spending on solutions like endpoint protection platforms and consumer security software is beginning to see commoditisation.
Other trends highlighted in the Gartner forecast include:
- Fewer than five percent of network security vendors will gain traction in the endpoint protection platform market though to the end of 2020;
- European organisation may forgo IT security purchasing, thanks to price increases of as much as 20%;
- Growth in the enterprise content-aware data loss prevention market will see constriction of growth of 4-5% through to the end of 2019;
- Fewer than 5% of organisations with more than 500 employees will purchase unified threat management solutions for their branch offices by 2019; and
- 85% of new deals for network sandboxing functionality will be packaged with network firewall and content security platforms by 2018.
Gartner clients are invited to read the full report
