Worldwide IT Security Spending to Top $60 Billion in 2012, Says Gartner

Global Security Infrastructure Market To Grow 8.4 Percent
 In 2012

According to data released by Gartner, worldwide spending on security is expected to rise to $60 billion in 2012, up 8.4 percent from $55 billion in 2011.

While weak economic conditions have put pressure on IT budgets overall, Gartner expects the increase in security-related IT spending to continue, reaching $86 billion in 2016.

Gartner defines the security infrastructure market as the software, services and network security appliances used to secure enterprise and consumer IT equipment.

Managed security services, secure Web gateways (appliances), and security information and event management (SIEM) are the fastest-growing security segments, Gartner said. Additionally, cloud-based security is also in demand, with above-average growth expected for SaaS based security solutions.

“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. “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.”

See Also: Stretching Government IT Budgets

Overall, 45 percent of survey respondents expected a security budget increase, 50 percent expected their budget to remain the same and only 5 percent expected their budget to decrease in 2012. This pattern varied little across regions, although some countries in emerging regions demonstrated a much-higher expectation of an increase, Gartner said.

“Although security remains fairly resilient in tough times, the prolonged financial crises seen in the U.S. and Europe have had some impact on IT security spending globally but to a lesser extent for emerging countries, such as Brazil, China and India,” said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner.

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. Within this environment, organizations will continue to seek the expertise and help of security technology and service providers to mitigate risks and reduce security vulnerabilities.

“Our most current forecast reflects our expectation that the various markets within security infrastructure will be affected to different degrees. In 2012, the market contributing most to overall growth, excluding exchange rate effects, is security services, followed by security software,” said Pingree. “We expect current market trends will keep security infrastructure growth at between 9 percent and 11 percent from 2011 through 2013, but we are factoring in a higher degree of caution in terms of buying behavior.”

The full 13-page report, Forecast Overview: Security Infrastructure, Worldwide, 2010-2016, 2Q12 Update, is priced at $1295 and available here.

Related: Stretching Government IT Budgets