Report: Security Infrastructure Market To Grow 8.4 Percent

Worldwide spending on security is expected to rise to $60 billion in 2012, up 8.4 percent from last year, according to a new report.

According to the new Gartner report Forecast Overview: Security Infrastructure, Worldwide, 2010-2016, 2Q12 Update, security will continue to be a spending priority for the next several years, reaching $86 billion in 2016.

IT outsourcing (managed security services), secure Web gateway (appliance), and security information and event management (SIEM) are the fastest-growing security segments, according to the report. Demand for cloud-based security is also driving market growth, the research firm says.

"The security infrastructure market is expected to experience positive growth over the forecast period, despite risks of further economic turbulence," said Lawrence Pingree, research director at Gartner, in a press release. "Results from the 2012 annual Gartner CIO survey show increased prioritization for security compared with 2011, and results from Gartner budgeting surveys published in June 2012 underline the fact that organizations globally are prioritizing on security budgets."

Overall, 45 percent of survey respondents said they expected a security budget increase, 50 percent expected their budgets to remain the same, and only 5 percent expected their budgets to decrease in 2012.

Gartner expects demand for security products and services to be driven by "the persistent threat landscape and influenced by the increasingly targeted and evolving attack patterns that are growing in sophistication," the report said.

"Our most current forecast reflects our expectation that the various markets within security infrastructure will be affected to different degrees," Pingree said. "In 2012, the market contributing most to overall growth, excluding exchange rate effects, is security services, followed by security software.

"We expect current market trends will keep security infrastructure growth at between 9% and 11% from 2011 through 2013, but we are factoring in a higher degree of caution in terms of buying behavior," Pingree said.

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