Enterprises will spend more on outsourced security services in the next few years than they ever have before, according to new figures published today by research firm Gartner.

According to "Gartner Forecast: Security Service Market, Worldwide, 2011," worldwide security services spending is on pace to reach $35.1 billion in 2011, up from $31.1 billion in 2010. The market is forecast to total $38.3 billion in 2012 and surpass $49.1 billion in 2015. "The security services market has changed rapidly over the last several years, with a growing number of security technology providers offering their technologies as services, and customers often preferring services to save on operational costs while they consolidate resources to more strategic security related initiatives," said Lawrence Pingree, research director at Gartner. The IT management segment of security services is forecast to grow from $8 billion to $14.9 billion in 2015, almost doubling the size of the security services market for managed security using the outsourced management model. "This is largely driven by organizations looking at managed security services (MSS) providers as a way to maximize resources and lower ongoing operating expenditures on security," Pingree said. "Demand in the small and medium business segments is also high as businesses continue looking to external parties to provide them with additional security expertise and resources that they may be lacking organizationally." North America is the largest market for security services spending, the report states, with revenue forecast to surpass $14.6 billion in 2012 and grow to $19 billion in 2015. In Western Europe, spending is expected to reach $11.9 billion in 2012 and total $14.4 billion in 2015. In Asia/Pacific, spending will total $4.7 billion in 2012 and $7 billion in 2015. "It is still very advantageous for smaller emerging vendors to maintain significant focus on North America, where there is a larger number of dollars at stake, and there is still positive growth," Pingree said.

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