IT security spending is about to cost a quarter more thanks to the low supply of highly skilled talent, and regulatory changes.
Beancounters at Gartner said that security spend is set to rise 12 percent from $101.54 billion to $114.15 billion this year. But it will be part of a general increase in security costs which will eventually hit $124.12 billion
Siddharth Deshpande, research director at Gartner said: “Security managers aspire to help their organisations use their technology platforms to become more competitive and contribute to the growth of the company. Persistent skills shortages and regulatory changes like the GDPR in Europe are driving continued growth in the security services market.”
He said the segment that will rake in the biggest bucks is security services, which are expected to account for ten per cent of IT security expenditure.
Gartner added that highly publicised data breaches, have reinforced the need to view protecting sensitive data and IT systems as a vital business investment.
Deshpande said security and risk management has to be a critical part of any digital business initiative. Identity and Access Management, Identity Governance and Administration, and Data Loss Prevention will all be impacted by the large rise in demand. The second and third biggest security segment earners are expected to be infrastructure protection and network protection systems.
