SMEs In Security Catch-Up Mode: Gartner

The worldwide security software market will total $14.5 billion in 2009, an 8 percent increase from 2008, according to Gartner. In 2008, it grew at 19 percent, and Gartner anticipates the market to grow 13 percent in 2010 as revenue will total $16.3 billion.

“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 at Gartner. “In the medium term, the greatest growth opportunities will come from software-as-a-service (SaaS), appliance-based offerings and small and medium enterprises (SMEs), 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 will 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 4 percent in 2009. The enterprise security software market formed by a number of segments such as endpoint protection platform, e-mail security boundary and user provisioning is predicted to account for $10.9 billion, reaching 9 percent growth in 2009.

“The security software market in 2008 was characterised by a high level of consolidation with the examples of McAfee purchasing Secure Computing, Symantec and Sophos acquiring MessageLabs and Ultimaco, respectively. This is a sector where further consolidation is expected in the near future,” said Contu. “End-users are gradually moving to better-integrated multi-products, particularly in 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, as buyers prefer to deal with two or more vendors that already trust each other’s software and practices.”