BYOD drives up security software spend
Gartner claims the market grew 7.8 per cent annually in 2012
Bring your own device (BYOD) drove a 7.9 per cent year-on-year increase in the security software market in 2012, according to Gartner.
The analyst claims total worldwide security software revenue reached $19.2bn (£12.67bn) last year, up 7.9 per cent annually, driven by "the evolution of new threats and working practices" such as BYOD.
Ruggero Contu, Gartner's research director, said that despite the worldwide boost in the market, Europe still lagged behind.
"Although overall, the 2012 security market continued to grow, not all regions experienced the high double-digit growth of, for example, Eurasia, which was driven by greenfield projects and buoyant economies," he added. "As expected, western Europe remained the laggard due to economic uncertainties and fragility and also due to the impact of dollar-to-euro conversion."
Symantec remained the market leader in 2012, taking a 19.6 per cent share following a 2.6 per cent annual hike in its revenue, claimed Gartner. McAfee, Trend Micro, IBM and EMC all upped their sales figures last year but took single-digit market share. The "other" sections of vendors dominated the market, accounting for 56.8 per cent market share thanks to combined annual revenues of $10.8bn.
Gartner picked out McAfee for its "significant" annual growth of 37 per cent, which took its sales figure to $1.7bn. The analyst put the jump down to a combination of organic growth, acquisitions and the indirect impact of a 2011 revenue write-down following its acquisition by Intel.
Contu added that the security market is benefiting from a rise in mid-market demand.
He said: "Security continues to be a top priority across all technology categories in the SMB market. The rise of mid-market demand presents a new challenge for participants in the security space, as SMB requirements are different from those of larger enterprises.
"Security buyers from SMBs are increasingly considering security-as-a-service as an alternative for deploying security technologies, particularly for areas such as email and web security, which is leading to more market consolidation and more competitive pricing as established players acquire pure-play cloud-based specialists across the security landscape."