Divination experts at analyst outfit Gartner have been observing the flight of birds, taken out the kidneys of live animals as auspices and are predicting that cloud security spending will increase by a third this year.
Information security spending is set to grow 2.4 percent to hit $123.8 billion in 2020, down from the 8.7 percent growth Gartner projected in its December 2019 forecast update.
Firewalls and network security devices are expected to endure spending declines this year, the mass shift to remote working and cloud will drive gains elsewhere.
Leading the way is cloud security spending, which Gartner now thinks will grow by 33 percent to $585 million. The shift to cloud-based delivery models will shield the security market from the full effects of a recession, the analyst said, noting that just 12 percent of overall security deployments were cloud-based in 2019.
Security services will see a 3.7 percent spending increase in 2020 to $64.3 billion, Gartner predicts, after shuffling its Tarot cards furiously.
Looking at the other major categories, spending on infrastructure protection and identity management will grow by 5.8 percent. Network security equipment spending will drop by 12.6 percent to $11.7 billion, the Big G said.
Gartner managing research vice president Lawrence Pingree said: “Like other segments of IT, we expect security will be negatively impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. Overall we expect a pause and a reduction of growth in both security software and services during 2020.
“However, there are a few factors in favour of some security market segments, such as cloud-based offerings and subscriptions, being propped up by demand or delivery model. Some security spending will not be discretionary and the positive trends cannot be ignored.” He then drew a few Tarot cards more, and discovered the Oxford comma.
