Global Infosec Spending to Top $75.4 Billion in 2015: Gartner

Commoditization of Mature Security Technologies Reduces Overall Market Forecast for 2015

High-profile data breaches and ever increasing cyber threats are expected to drive global information security spending above the $75.4 billion mark in 2015, according to Gartner.

The research firm forecasts that spending on information security will increase 4.7 percent this year, compared to 2014’s spending in the segment, and that providers will seek growth opportunities in security testing, IT outsourcing, and identity and access management. The forecast is not far off from last year’s estimation, when the firm predicted that  spending in the sector would reach $76.9 billion for 2015. 

Gartner also predicts that spending in endpoint protection platforms and consumer security software will decrease in 2015, noting that the market for security software is composed of mature technology areas that already registered high penetration rate. 

Another reason for decreased spending could be from an increase in prices of security products in the European region, the firm said, as prices went up as much as 20 percent for security products in the area due to the exchange rate for local currencies to U.S. dollars.

The IT advisory firm notes that security spending is growing in countries such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and South Africa based on increased legislation. 

“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,” said Elizabeth Kim, research analyst at Gartner.

Kim also explains that organizations will invest in emerging offerings, including detection and remediation tools for endpoints, threat intelligence, and cloud security solutions such as encryption. The increase in these emerging segments won’t compensate for the downgrade of the larger mature segments.

The firm forecasts that the enterprise content-aware data loss prevention (DLP) market will grow at a lower rage through the end of 2019 due to the increase in channel DLP (C-DLP) and DLP lite solutions. Gartner also says that established vendors in this segment are changing the manner in which they deliver DLP capabilities, and this also impacts growth.

According to the research company, less than five percent network security vendors will see traction in endpoint protection platform (EPP) market through the end of 2020, as companies are looking to reduce the number of agents on endpoints, thus lowering the risk of interfering with applications. 

By 2019, fewer than 5 percent of businesses 500 employees or more will purchase unified threat management (UTM) solutions for branch offices, Gartner said. Only midsize business (SMB) will be interested in UTM appliances, while enterprises will continue to use routers and Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) links to connect smallest branches and regional centers.

Gartner also predicts that network firewall and content security platforms will be included in 85 percent of the deals for network malware sandboxing functionality by 2018. The advanced-threat environment created over the past three years determined companies to adopt network sandboxing, and recent high-profile breaches increased the need for this security approach.