IT security spending to increase into 2016

IT security is set to remain a priority for companies through to 2016, despite cuts in budgets and the current economic crisis, Gartner has said.

According the the analyst house, worldwide spending on security is expected to rise to $60 billion in 2012, up 8.4 percent from $55 billion in 2011. Gartner expects this rise to continue, reaching $86 billion in 2016.

The security infrastructure market consists of the software, services and network security appliances used to secure enterprise and consumer IT equipment.

IT outsourcing , secure Web gateway, security information and event management (SIEM) were pinpointed as the fastest-growing security segments, while demand for cloud-based security is also said to be impacting a number of key security markets, and above-average growth is expected for this new delivery model.

Lawrence Pingree, research director at Gartner, said: “The security infrastructure market is expected to experience positive growth over the forecast period, despite risks of further economic turbulence.

“Results from the 2012 annual Gartner CIO survey show increased prioritisation for security compared with 2011 and results from Gartner budgeting surveys published in June 2012 underline the fact that organisations globally are prioritising on security budgets.”

In a survey of businesses, the company said that 45 percent expected a security budget increase, while 50 percent expected their budget to remain the same. Only five percent expected their budget to decrease in 2012.

And Gartner said this looked to be a global trend with the patterns not shifting across regions, although some countries in emerging regions demonstrated a much higher expectation of an increase.

This included emerging countries such as Brazil, China and India.

New and emerging threats were said to keep the security world on its toes, with businesses continuing to purchase technology to keep up to date with these, the company concluded.