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Managed services is expected to account for the “largest and fastest growing” segment of the security market during the next six months, triggered by heightened customer demand for protection amid a sustained shift in remote working.
Billed as ‘single-tenant solutions operated by third-party providers and residing on customers' premises’, increased end-user appetite for managed security offerings delivered via the channel comes in response to the continuation of wide-scale lockdown measures which in turn have prompted a significant rise in cyber threats.
According to IDC findings, such demand is followed by integration services and consulting services, with the overall security services market accounting for approximately half of all security spending in the short-term.
Looking ahead, security services investment is expected to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.5 per cent during the next five years, with managed services in particular set to outpace the market at 13.6 per cent.
“Complexity abounds with security technology deployment and sprawl requiring assessment and design services," said Christina Richmond, program vice president of Security Services at IDC.
“While Covid-19 has had a negative impact on many ICT technologies, security services have witnessed increased engagements, especially in outsourcing services such as managed security services (MSS) and managed detection and response (MDR). Security services will see strong demand throughout the forecast period.”
As outlined by Richmond, software represents the second largest segment of the security market, led by endpoint security and security analytics, intelligence, response and orchestration software.
“Hardware spending will be dominated by network security needs, including firewalls, intrusion detection and prevention, unified threat management, and virtual private networks,” she added. “Both product segments are expected to recover in 2021 with year-over-year growth rates of 9.6 per cent for hardware and 4.4 per cent for software.”
Credit: IDC Generally speaking, and according to IDC, worldwide spending on security products and services will experience "solid growth" in 2020, with investment on security-related hardware, software and services forecast to reach US$125.2 billion, representing an increase of six per cent compared to 2019.
“While IT spending is contracting across most industries and technologies in the wake of the pandemic, security spend remains strong, particularly in industries including state and local governments, telecom and federal and central governments that have become essential in our new environment,” said Karen Massey, research manager of Customer Insights and Analysis at IDC. “Indeed, these three industries will exhibit double-digit growth in security spending through 2024.
“Meanwhile, banking, manufacturing and professional services continue to have the largest share of security spending. We even see positive movement in security for industries that are currently struggling, such as retail and transportation.”
Massey said banking, discrete manufacturing and federal and central governments will account for roughly 30 per cent of overall spending in 2020. Meanwhile, sectors reporting the greatest increase in security spending this year include federal and central government (10 per cent), state and local government (8.9 per cent) and telecommunications (8.5 per cent).
Specific to company size, upper mid-market (500-1000 employees) and enterprise (more than 1000 employees) customers will be responsible for two thirds of all security-related spending in 2020, according to IDC. On the flip side, lower mid-market (100-499 employees) and small-sized businesses (10-99 employees) are expected to spend more than $30 billion combined on security solutions this year.
