Worldwide Spending on Security Technology Forecast to Reach $81.7 Billion in 2017

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A new update to the Worldwide Semiannual Security Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts worldwide revenues for security-related hardware, software, and services will reach $81.7 billion in 2017, an increase of 8.2% over 2016. Global spending on security solutions is expected to accelerate slightly over the next several years, achieving a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.7% through 2020 when revenues will be nearly $105 billion. 

"The rapid growth of digital transformation is putting pressures on companies across all industries to proactively invest in security to protect themselves against known and unknown threats," said Eileen Smith, program director, Customer Insights and Analysis. "On a global basis, the banking, discrete manufacturing, and federal/central government industries will spend the most on security hardware, software, and services throughout the 2015-2020 forecast. Combined, these three industries will deliver more than 30% of the worldwide total in 2017." 

In addition to the banking, discrete manufacturing, and federal/central government industries, three other industries (process manufacturing, professional services, and telecommunications) will each spend more than $5 billion on security products this year. These will remain the six largest industries for security-related spending throughout the forecast period, while a robust CAGR of 11.2% will enable telecommunications to move into the number 5 position in 2018. Following telecommunications, the industries with the next fastest five-year CAGRs are state/local government (10.2%), healthcare (9.8%), utilities (9.7%), and banking (9.5%). 

Services will be the largest area of security-related spending throughout the forecast, led by three of the five largest technology categories: managed security services, integration services, and consulting services. Together, companies will spend nearly $31.2 billion, more than 38% of the worldwide total, on these three categories in 2017. Network security (hardware and software combined) will be the largest category of security-related spending in 2017 at $15.2 billion, while endpoint security software will be the third largest category at $10.2 billion. The technology categories that will see the fastest spending growth over the 2015-2020 forecast period are device vulnerability assessment software (16.0% CAGR), software vulnerability assessment (14.5% CAGR), managed security services (12.2% CAGR), user behavioral analytics (12.2% CAGR), and UTM hardware (11.9% CAGR).

From a geographic perspective, the United States will be the largest market for security products throughout the forecast. In 2017, the U.S. is forecast to see $36.9 billion in security-related investments. Western Europe will be the second largest market with spending of nearly $19.2 billion this year, followed by the Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) region. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) will be the fastest growing region with a CAGR of 18.5% over the 2015-2020 forecast period, followed by the Middle East & Africa (MEA)(9.2% CAGR) and Western Europe (8.0% CAGR). 

"European organizations show a strong focus on security matters with data, cloud, and mobile security being the top three security concerns. In this context, GDPR will drive up compliance-related projects significantly in 2017 and 2018, until organizations have found a cost-efficient and scalable way of dealing with data," said Angela Vacca, senior research manager, Customer Insights and Analysis. "In particular, Western European utilities, professional services, and healthcare institutions will increase their security spending the most while the banking industry remains the largest market." 

From a company size perspective, large and very large businesses (those with more than 500 employees) will be responsible for roughly two thirds of all security-related spending throughout the forecast. IDC also expects very large businesses (more than 1,000 employees) to pass the $50 billion spending level in 2019. Small and medium businesses (SMBs) will also be a significant contributor to BDA spending with the remaining one third of worldwide revenues coming from companies with fewer than 500 employees. 

The Worldwide Semiannual Security Spending Guide quantifies the global revenue opportunity for both core and next-generation security purchases. The guide offers detailed forecast data for security spending by 20 industries across eight regions and 53 countries. Unlike any other research in the industry, the comprehensive spending guide was designed to help IT decision makers to clearly understand the industry-specific scope and direction of security-related spending today and over the next five years. 

About IDC Spending Guides 

IDC's Spending Guides provide a granular view of key technology markets from a regional, vertical industry, use case, buyer, and technology perspective. The spending guides are delivered via pivot table format or custom query tool, allowing the user to easily extract meaningful information about each market by viewing data trends and relationships. 

About IDC 

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology, telecommunications, and consumer technology markets. With more than 1,100 analysts worldwide, IDC offers global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends in over 110 countries. IDC's analysis and insight helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community to make fact-based technology decisions and to achieve their key business objectives. Founded in 1964, IDC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technology media, data, and marketing services company.