Worldwide IT Security Spending to Hit $114bn This Year: Gartner Forecast

According to the latest forecast from Gartner, global IT security spending would hit $114 billion in 2018, which would mean an increase of over 12.4 percent from the 2017 figures. Gartner estimates say that it would hit $124 billion next year.

A Gartner press release says, “Worldwide spending on information security products and services will reach more than $114 billion in 2018, an increase of 12.4 percent from last year, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. In 2019, the market is forecast to grow 8.7 percent to $124 billion.”

While Gartner had, in 2017, pointed out through a survey that security risks, business needs and industry changes are the top three drivers for security spending on the global level, the 2018 scenario adds another factor to the list. Gartner now points out that privacy concerns too have become a key factor, with at least 10 percent of market demand for security services likely to being attributed to this one factor alone in 2019. It would impact a variety of segments, including IAM (Identity and Access Management), IGA (Identity Governance and Administration) and DLP (Data Loss Prevention).

The Gartner press release quotes the company’s research director Siddharth Deshpande as saying- “Security leaders are striving to help their organizations securely use technology platforms to become more competitive and drive growth for the business. Persisting skills shortages and regulatory changes like the EU’s Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) are driving continued growth in the security services market.”

Gartner had, in September and October 2017, carried out a survey, covering 480 respondents and spanning eight countries- the U.S, the U.K, Australia, Canada, France, India, Germany and Singapore. The survey was conducted to gain insights into security spending, both current and planned ones.

The breakdown of the statistics for 2018 is as follows: Security Services- $58,920 million; Infrastructure Protection- $14,106 million; Network Security Equipment- $12,427 million; Identity Access Management-$9,768 million; Consumer Security Software- $6,395 million; Integrated Risk Management- $4,347 million; Data Security- $3,063 million; Application Security-$2,742 million; Cloud Security- $304 million, and other Information Security Software-$2,079 million.

Thus, figures show that the largest chunk of the total expense would be spent on Security Services, followed by Infrastructure Protection and Network Security Equipments.

Gartner has also identified some key trends that affect information security spending in 2018-2019. As per the analysis, almost 30 percent of organizations would spend heavily in 2019 on ensuring GDPR-compliance. Similarly, for over 40 percent of organizations, risk management and privacy concerns within digital transformation would require additional spending through 2020. By 2020, at least 50 percent of security software delivery would be represented by services, both subscription services and managed ones.

Research director Siddharth Deshpande states- “Security and risk management has to be a critical part of any digital business initiative”.