8% Hike In Worldwide Security Software Markets: Gartner

Gartner anticipates that the worldwide security software market will touch a

total of $14.5 billion. This would amount to a total of eight percent increase

this year. In 2008, a hike of 19 percent was seen. For 2010, Gartner predicted

that the market will grow further and ensure a 13 percent increase, as revenue

is expected to total around $16.3 billion. This represents a seven percent

growth from last year.

“Although the worldwide security software market is affected by the economic

downturn, the growth will continue to be strong in 2009 as security remains a

critical area where drastic cuts cannot be afforded,” said Ruggero Contu,

Principal Research Analyst, Gartner. He further said, “In the medium term, the

greatest growth opportunities will come from software as a service (SaaS),

appliance based offering and small and medium businesses (SMBs), which are in

security catch-up mode compared with large companies and therefore spend a

higher percentage of their budgets on security.”

In 2009, consumer security is expected to remain the largest segment (in

terms of total software revenue) in the security software market, representing

25 percent of the total market. Gartner estimates it will account for $3.6

billion, growing four percent in 2009.

The enterprise security software market is formed by various components put

together. These include a number of segments such as endpoint protection

platform, email security boundary and user provisioning. It has been predicted

yet again by Gartner that it will account for revenues of $10.9 billion.

“The security software market in 2008 was charac­terized by a high level of

conso­lidation with McAfee purchasing Secure Computing, Symantec and Sophos

acqui­ring MessageLabs and Ultimaco respectively,” said Contu.

“End-users are gradually moving to better-integrated multi-products.

Particularly they are moving to areas such as endpoint security and identity and

access management. Vendors offering good integration in an already established

and trusted technology partnership will be best-placed for success,” he

concluded.

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