Gartner releases forecast on security spending

Three factors influencing growth in security spending are the increase in remote and hybrid work, the transition from virtual private networks (VPNs) to zero trust network access (ZTNA) and the shift to cloud-based delivery models, according to consulting company Gartner. 

“The pandemic accelerated hybrid work and the shift to the cloud, challenging the CISO to secure an increasingly distributed enterprise,” said Ruggero Contu, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.

“The modern CISO needs to focus on an expanding attack surface created by digital transformation initiatives such as cloud adoption, IT/OT-IoT convergence, remote working and third-party infrastructure integration. Demand for technologies and services such as cloud security, application security, ZTNA, and threat intelligence has been rising to tackle new vulnerabilities and risks arising from this exposure,” he said.

End-user spending on information security and risk management products and services is forecast to grow 11.3% to reach more than $188.3 billion in 2023. Cloud security is the category forecast to have the strongest growth over the next two years. As organisations increase focus on ESG, third-party risk, cybersecurity risk and privacy risk, Gartner forecasts that the integrated risk management market will show double-digit growth through 2024, until greater competition results in cheaper solutions.

Security services including consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services is the largest category of spending, totalling $71.7 billion in 2022, and expected to reach $76.5 billion in 2023.

Remote Work Continues to Drive Investment

Demand for technologies that enable a secure remote and hybrid work environment will increase beyond 2022. As organisations look to create secure work-from-home environments, they are exploring solutions that offer quick return on investment. As a result, technologies such as web application firewalls, access management, endpoint protection platform and secure web gateway will witness short-term demand at least until 2022.

The Rise of Zero Trust Network Access

ZTNA is the fastest-growing segment in network security, forecast to grow 36% in 2022 and 31% in 2023, driven by the increased demand for zero trust protection for remote workers and organizations’ reducing dependence on VPNs for secure access. As organisations become familiar with ZTNA, there is a growing trend to use it not only for remote working use cases but also for workers in the office.

Gartner predicts that by 2025, at least 70% of new remote access deployments will be served predominantly by ZTNA as opposed to VPN services, up from less than 10% at the end of 2021.

Shift to Cloud-Based Delivery Models

Due to multicloud environments, organizations face increased security risks as well as the complexity of operating and managing multiple technologies. Gartner analysts said this will lead to a push toward cloud security and the market share of cloud-native solutions will grow.

The combined market for cloud access security brokers and cloud workload protection platform will grow 26.8% to reach $6.7 billion in 2023. Demand for cloud-based detection and response solutions — such as endpoint detection and response and managed detection and response — will also increase in the coming years.