Gartner: Global Security Spending Rises Nearly 5% Despite 'Commoditization'

Security market to hit $75.4 billion in 2015, but endpoint and consumer software segments slowing due to saturation.

Dark Reading logo in a gray background | Dark Reading

Security spending remains hot -- to the tune of $75.4 billion worldwide this year -- but signs of a slowdown are showing in certain segments such as endpoint and protection platforms and consumer products, according to new data from Gartner.

The security analyst firm estimates a 4.7% increase in security spending in 2015 over last year, an increase mainly driven by government projects, legislative pressures, and the long shadow of major data breaches around the globe. But Gartner warns that saturation of more mature and established security tools hampering overall growth.

Bigger security budgets are the reality for nearly half of the enterprises recently polled in the Dark Reading/InformationWeek 2015 Strategic Security Survey, with security accounting for anywhere from 1% to 10% of annual IT budgets at half of the organizations in the survey.

Gartner research analyst Elizabeth Kim says cloud, mobile computing, the Internet of Things, and advanced targeted attacks are driving security technology demand. Kim says these technologies are driving spending in newer generation products such as endpoint detection and remediation, threat intelligence, and cloud security offerings such as encryption. Even so, these newer product purchases aren't enough to provide a sufficient bump to counter the flattening of the more mature and commoditized product sectors.

The firm expects the market to grow at a CAGR of 7.4% through 2019, with the hottest security sectors being testing, outsourcing, and identity access and management.

Meanwhile, the top four security products in most organizations are the same-old, same-old: firewalls (91%), spam filters (88%), antivirus (83%), and VPNs (81%), according to the InformationWeek/Dark Reading survey, with each down a percentage point or two from 2014.

Other findings by Gartner in its "Forecast Analysis: Information Security, Worldwide, 2Q15 Update"

  • Up to 20% increase in security product pricing will quell some purchasing, mainly in Europe due to US dollar appreciation;

  • Data loss prevention (DLP) product market will drop through 2019 due to commoditization and lower-cost solutions;

  • Less than 5% of companies with more than 500 employees will buy unified threat management (UTM) products for their satellite offices by 2019 -- it's now mainly a small- to midsized business product;

  • 85% of network sandboxing functionality will be woven into network firewall and content security platforms by 2018.

"There's been a tremendous DLP adoption wave," says Lawrence Pingree, research director and analyst for Gartner, who co-authored the report. "We're seeing greater integration of DLP," which accounts for the drop in the dedicated DLP space, he says. "We will still see DLP playing a role in the future." 

About the Author

Kelly Jackson Higgins, Editor-in-Chief, Dark Reading

Kelly Jackson Higgins is the Editor-in-Chief of Dark Reading. She is an award-winning veteran technology and business journalist with more than two decades of experience in reporting and editing for various publications, including Network Computing, Secure Enterprise Magazine, Virginia Business magazine, and other major media properties. Jackson Higgins was recently selected as one of the Top 10 Cybersecurity Journalists in the US, and named as one of Folio's 2019 Top Women in Media. She began her career as a sports writer in the Washington, DC metropolitan area, and earned her BA at William & Mary. Follow her on Twitter @kjhiggins.

Keep up with the latest cybersecurity threats, newly discovered vulnerabilities, data breach information, and emerging trends. Delivered daily or weekly right to your email inbox.

You May Also Like


More Insights