Spending on IT security is expected to hit $60bn this year and will rise to $86bn by 2016, according to new research from Gartner.
The analyst house believes that despite economic worries and tightening IT budgets across the world, security will remain a top priority for businesses. Expected spending on $60bn in 2012 is an 8.4% rise on the $55bn that was spent in 2011.
Gartner defines the security infrastructure markets as the software, services and network security appliances used to secure enterprise and consumer IT equipment.
Cloud-based security is expected to be one of the areas where spending will increase the most, along with security information and event management (SIEM), web gateway and managed security services.
Just 5% of respondent’s to Gartner’s survey expected to see a decline in their security budget, while 45% expected an increase and the remaining half predicting budgets would remain the same.
"The security infrastructure market is expected to experience positive growth over the forecast period, despite risks of further economic turbulence," said Lawrence Pingree, research director at Gartner.
"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," Pingree added.
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Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner, added that while the economic situation will hit security spending in the US and Europe, emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India will not be hit as hard.
"We expect current market trends will keep security infrastructure growth at between 9% and 11% from 2011 through 2013, but we are factoring in a higher degree of caution in terms of buying behaviour," concluded Lawrence Pingree.
