IT security growth to slow in 2016

Relatively low number of breaches in past 12 months could suppress appetite for spending this year, research house says

A decline in significant breaches against major brands over the past 12 months could curb IT security spending growth this year, an analyst has warned.

According to Technology Business Research, enterprise security spending growth will slow to 10.7 per cent in 2016, meaning it will be a "difficult year" for many security vendors and security services providers.

Political uncertainty in the US, a declining economy in China and "lingering effects of disparate security regulations in EU countries" were cited as factors behind the anticipated slowdown.

"The relatively low number of significant breaches against major brands in the past year will also pressure security revenue growth in the coming year," added Jane Wright, senior analyst and security research lead at TBR.

Growth in 2016 will be lower than the 12 per cent and 11.3 per cent spurts recorded in 2014 and 2015 respectively, but spending will rebound in 2017 as black hats devise new attack methods, TBR predicted.

Total revenue for IT security, hardware and software products, as well as managed and hosted security services, hit $42bn (£29.3bn) in 2015, TBR said. That total will swell to $71bn by 2020, equating to a compound annual growth rate of 11.2 per cent, it added.

EMEA currently accounts for 29.2 per cent of the total, but will generate the lowest growth of all regions in the next five years, TBR said.

The analyst tipped mobile security and security management as two growth hotspots in the coming years. However, revenue in the data security and application security segments will grow more slowly than the overall market, it said.