Worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach more than $114 billion in 2018, an increase of 12.4% from last year, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). In 2019, the market is forecast to grow 8.7% to $124 billion, adds the research group.
“Security leaders are striving to help their organizations securely use technology platforms to become more competitive and drive growth for the business,” says Siddharth Deshpande, research director at Gartner. “Persisting skills shortages and regulatory changes like the EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are driving continued growth in the security services market.”
A 2017 Gartner survey revealed that the top three drivers for security spending are (1) security risks; (2) business needs; and (3) industry changes. Privacy concerns are also becoming a key factor. Gartner believes privacy concerns will drive at least 10% of market demand for security services through 2019 and will impact a variety of segments, such as identity and access management (IAM), identity governance and administration (IGA) and data loss prevention (DLP).
Deshpande said highly publicized data breaches, like the recent attack on SingHealth that compromised the personal health records of 1.5 million patients in Singapore, reinforce the need to view sensitive data and IT systems as critical infrastructure. Security and risk management has to be a critical part of any digital business initiative, he added.
An increased focus on building detection and response capabilities, privacy regulations such as GDPR, and the need to address digital business risks are the main drivers for global security spending through 2019, according to Gartner.