In its report - entitled `the European Security Convergence Market' - F&S said the market earned revenues of €700.5 million in 2008 and estimates it will reach €2400.2m in 2014.
Matia Grossi, the research firm's industry analyst, said that the efficient allocation of security resources requires a risk-based approach and greater transparency related to an organisation's security strategy.
"On the one hand, the economic recession is accelerating the process for increased efficiency, on the other, commercial and government sectors alike are slowing down reorganisations or technology migrations, which are likely to involve large capital expenditure", he said.
According to Grossi, there are many benefits that the convergence of physical and logical security brings to an organisation.
These, he said, start with enhanced security for different types of assets - both physical and logical - to greater efficiency and operation savings brought about by single-point provisioning of multiple systems / applications, as well as immediate savings due to shared infrastructure like cabling.
Interestingly, Grossi's report said that a fully converged security system can also offer advantages in terms of operational efficiency.
However, in the current economic situation, the report noted that companies are curbing all non-essential spending, and this represents a major challenge to stronger growth in the security market in 2009.
"A fully integrated / converged system requires direct access to all the security systems, information sources and databases; direct access to all the applications", he explained.
"In order to have full functional integration of different physical and logical security systems, databases and technologies involved, there needs to be adherence to specific regulations, standards and protocols."
And, he went on to say, ensuring all this happens can be a costly exercise, and - as the return on investment benefits are still uncertain - companies are placing a stop on them until the economy has recovered.
F&S said that the first security or IT company - or set of companies to develop a fully functional converged platform - will enjoy a strong competitive edge in the security market.