Worldwide spending on information security and risk management technology and services is forecast to grow 12.4 per cent in 2021, to reach US$ 150.4 billion, according to the latest forecast from Gartner. Security and risk management spending grew 6.4 per cent in 2020.
Gartner analysts said the strong growth rate reflects continuing demand for remote worker technologies and cloud security.
“Organisations continue to grapple with the security and regulatory demands of public cloud and software as a service. Looking ahead, we’re seeing early market signals of growing automation and further adoption of machine learning technologies in support of AI security. To combat attacks, organisations will extend and standardise threat detection and response activities,” said Lawrence Pingree, Managing Research Vice President, Gartner.
In the Gartner 2021 CIO Agenda Survey, cybersecurity was the top priority for new spending, with 61 per cent of the more than 2,000 CIOs surveyed increasing investment in cyber/information security this year.
Security services including consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services represent the largest category of spending in 2021, at almost US$ 72.5 billion worldwide.
“The pace of client inquiry indicates that CASB is a popular choice for cloud using organisations. This is due to the growing popularity of using non-PC devices for interacting with core business processes, which creates security risks that can be mitigated effectively with a CASB. CASBs also enable safer interaction between SaaS applications and unmanaged devices,” added Pingree.