The worldwide security software market is defying the recession and will reach US$14.5bn in 2009, up 8pc on last year.
While growth is slower than the 17pc growth recorded a year ago, Gartner expects the global software market to grow 13pc in 2010 when revenues will total US$16.3bn.
In Europe, the security software market will total €3.2bn in 2009, representing 7pc growth from 2008.
“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.
“In the medium term, the greatest growth opportunities will come from software as a service (SaaS), appliance based offering and small and medium businesses (SMBs), which are in security catch-up mode compared with large companies and therefore spend a higher percentage of their budgets on security.”
In 2009, consumer security will remain the largest segment in terms of total software revenue in the security software market, representing 25pc of the total market.
Gartner estimates it will account for $3.6bn, growing 4pc in 2009. The enterprise security software market formed by a number of segments such as endpoint protection platform, email security boundary and user provisioning is predicted to account for $10.9 billion, reaching 9pc growth in 2009.
“The security software market in 2008 was characterised 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. “End-users are gradually moving to better-integrated multi-products, particularly in areas such as endpoint security and identity and access management.
“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,” Contu added.
By John Kennedy
Photo: The worldwide security software market is projected to reach US$14.5bn this year.
