Gartner: Security Budgets Growing Slowly

NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. -- Gartner Security Summit -- The economy may be sluggish and information security may have slipped to a lower priority in many organizations, but security budgets worldwide will increase 8.5 percent this year, mostly thanks to growth in security services, according to new Gartner research presented here today.

Victor Wheatman, Gartner vice president and research director for security, says although security is not topping budget priorities this year, it’s still a major priority. “Security will always be a priority when there are threats,” says Wheatman, who presented Gartner’s latest numbers on the information security market in one of the summit’s rapid-fire Analyst-in-a-Box sessions.

Security services, which were at around $20 million last year, will grow to about $22 million by the end of this year; around $25 million in 2009; and up to $30 million by 2011. There will be a 6.8 percent CAGR of $13.1 billion in total security spending through the year 2012. Gartner predicts a compound annual growth rate of 6.8 percent for overall security spending through 2012.

Last year, organizations ranked security as their No. 6 priority behind business intelligence and enterprise applications, and this year it inched up to No. 5 -- still far below its No. 2 ranking in the early 2000s. Gartner attributes the shift to fewer massive virus attacks from 2006 to 2007.

“Expect positive but moderate growth in 2008,” Wheatman says. “Some uncertainty about market consolidation, a weak economy... and slowed purchasing decisions for some buyers.”

Small- to medium-sized businesses are behind some of the surge in security services, he says, thanks to PCI and other regulations.

And the hottest regional markets are the Middle East, Africa, and Asia Pacific, where security is still in its infancy, according to Gartner.

— Kelly Jackson Higgins, Senior Editor, Dark Reading