Worldwide
security services spending is on pace to reach $35.1 billion in 2011, up from
$31.1 billion in 2010, according to IT analytics firm Gartner. The market is
forecast to reach $38.3 billion in 2012 and surpass $49.1 billion in 2015,
according to the company’s research.
In
addition, the IT management segment of security services is forecast to grow
from $8 billion to $14.9 billion in 2015, almost doubling the size of the
security services market for managed security using the outsourced management
model.
"The
security services market has changed rapidly over the last several years with a
growing number of security technology providers offering their technologies as
services, and customers often preferring services to save on operational costs
while they consolidate resources to more strategic security-related
initiatives," said Lawrence Pingree, research director at Gartner.
North
America is the largest market for security services spending, with revenue
forecast to surpass $14.6 billion in 2012 and grow to $19 billion in 2015. In
Western Europe, spending is expected to reach $11.9 billion in 2012 and total
$14.4 billion in 2015. Security services spending in Japan is projected to grow
from $5.1 billion in 2012 to $5.9 billion in 2015. In Asia/Pacific, spending
will total $4.7 billion in 2012 and total $7 billion in 2015.
"This
is largely driven by organizations looking at managed security services (MSS)
providers as a way to maximize resources and lower ongoing operating
expenditures on security," Pingree said. "Demand in the small and
medium business segments is also high as businesses continue looking to
external parties to provide them with additional security expertise and
resources that they may be lacking organizationally to help them make the right
security decisions or provide security functions externally."
Pingree
noted it is still “very advantageous” for smaller emerging vendors to maintain
significant focus on North America, where there is a larger number of dollars
at stake, and there is still positive growth. "We are encouraging these
vendors to continue to invest in strategies to stay relevant in other emerging
high-growth markets as well,” he explained. “For the larger, more-established
security services providers that already have an extensive North American
presence, it may make the most sense to focus efforts on regions with higher
growth rates and less overall services market revenue penetration."