The report, from Goode Intelligence, claims to show that the market for mobile phone-based authentication products and services will grow significantly over the next four years and could become the de-facto standard for securing cloud-based services such as Google Apps.
The report –The Mobile Phone as an Authentication Device, Analysis and Forecasts 2010 - 2014 – says that the key drivers behind this market growth and the adoption of mobile authentication include the move to cloud services that require more agile and scalable authentication services.
In addition, says the study, the need to offer a flexible and strong authentication solution that can work across platforms and includes Smartphones and tablet computers is also pushing the sector along.
Other factors driving the market, says the research firm, include increased employee mobility which requires secure access to company networks remotely, and an ongoing need to reduce operational costs in organisations.
Alan Goode, the managing director of Goode Intelligence, said that the Google migration to two-factor authentication is exactly what the industry and users need.
"It's a vindication of the strengths of mobile phone-based authentication solutions that one of the largest technology companies in the world has chosen to develop a solution that can quickly improve its security posture", he said.
"Time and time again it has been proven that passwords, on their own are simply not good enough to authenticate users. A stronger and more flexible approach is needed to meet the growing authentication requirements of the converged and connected world", he added.
Goode went on to say that Google's announcement will kick-start the widespread adoption of mobile two-factor authentication and enable the spread of strong authentication outside of the enterprise environment.
He applauds Google for its decision to invest in this solution and to make it freely available. It will also have a significant positive effect on those technology vendors that are currently marketing alternative mobile phone based authentication solutions.
"By offering additional services such as Out-Of-Bound (OOB) authentication and/or transaction verification services, these vendors will still offer an attractive solution that will be a credible alternative to Google's offering", he said.