Gartner: Security software market will grow in 2009

by Steve Ragan - Sep 21 2009, 17:50

According to new figures from Gartner, the security software market will grow eight percent in 2009, to a total of $14.5 billion USD. This eight percent is in addition to the 19-percent growth seen in the security software market last year. Gartner also said that the security software market will grow seven percent in Europe, making it a €3.2 billion EUR.

“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.

For now, the greatest growth will come from appliance based offerings, small and medium businesses (SMBs), and from Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

“SMBs are in security catch-up mode compared with large companies and therefore spend a higher percentage of their budgets on security,” Contu added.

Gartner said that the consumer security segment will remain the largest overall in terms of total revenue, representing 25-percent of the total market. This 25-percent amounts to a four percent growth over 2008’s figures.

“The security software market in 2008 was characterized 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.

The security software market for enterprise, including segments such as endpoint protection platform, email security boundary, and user provisioning, is predicted to account for $10.9 billion USD, reaching 9-percent growth in 2009.

Contu added that for the most part, end-users are moving to better-integrated multi-products. Areas such as endpoint security and identity and access management, are the seeing the most focus.

“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.”

Looking forward, Gartner says the security software market is expected to grow 13-percent in 2010, as revenue will total $16.3 billion USD.

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