According to a report from IDC, increased focus by enterprises on cloud computing and mobile deployments will see the European security software market grow by around 5 per cent in 2012. Guy Daniels reports.
A new report from research group IDC suggests that an increased adoption of security software by enterprises to strengthen cloud computing and mobile deployments will benefit the European security software market. Cloud-based security software, aimed at protecting companies implementing both private and public clouds, is in greater demand than previous years, as companies look to reduce operating costs, increase their commercial product offerings and adapt to the needs of an increasingly agile workforce.
The report says that Cloud and SaaS-based security will increase in adoption and variety of offerings as customers realise the financial and business benefits, and vendors address the negativity around security threats.
Identity and access management, and security and vulnerability management, are the functional markets with the greatest growth prospects, although the secure content and threat management market presents the largest revenue opportunity.
Kevin Bailey, Research Director for European Security Software at IDC, says that cyber criminals and hactivists are thriving in the current economic and political environment, which presents opportunities for security software sales:
“As budget spend goes under the microscope, due to austerity measures and capital controls, CxOs and their management have appreciated the damage that security breaches can inflict on their organization, in both financial and reputational terms. This has raised the necessity to advance security software as a strategic component of the IT infrastructure, creating the need for greater share of budget over the next few years.”
Mobile security software, which addresses the data and device challenges of BYOD and consumerisation of IT, is also seeing growth. Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, Austria, and France would appear to offer the strongest growth prospects for European security software vendors.
IDC’s growth forecast for the European security software market is around 5 per cent for 2012, down from the previously expected 8.9%. Bailey adds that:
“This market is evolving from a reactive anti-malware execution-based implementation into a complex context aware protection mechanism.”
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