Gartner has predicted worldwide security spending to increase by 8% in 2018 to hit a staggering $96 billion.
Prominent research firm Gartner is predicting a massive increase in spending on Identity Access Management, up from 9.7% from 2017. Security services overall are expected to see an increase by 8% while specific features like Infrastructure Protection is expected to gain 7.15% year-on-year alongside Network Security Equipment (6.29%( and Consumer Security Software (2.29%).
New regulations around the world from authorities like the National Institute of Standards and Technology in the US and China’s Cybersecurity Law or Europe’s GDPR are also going to encourage businesses into spending more in security technology. Specifically, the regulations are certain to bring in additional spending in data security tools, privileged access management and SIEM.
“Overall, a large portion of security spending is driven by an organisation’s reaction toward security breaches as more high profile cyber attacks and data breaches affect organisations worldwide,” said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. “Cyber attacks such as WannaCry and NotPetya, and most recently the Equifax breach, have a direct effect on security spend, because these types of attacks last up to three years.”
Curiously, a continuing trend of skills shortages in the industry will lead organizations look toward automation and outsourcing.
“Skill sets are scarce and therefore remain at a premium, leading organizations to seek external help from security consultants, managed security service providers and outsourcers,” Contu added. “In 2018, spending on security outsourcing services will total $18.5 billion, an 11 percent increase from 2017. The IT outsourcing segment is the second-largest security spending segment after consulting.”
By 2019, the total enterprise spending on security outsourcing services will be at 75% of the spending on security software and hardware products, up from 63 percent in 2016.
Further, Gartner estimates that 60% of businsesses will use multiple security tools in data loss prevention, encryption and data-centric audit related tasks, up from the 35% presently to keep ahead of incoming regulations in 2018.
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