In its report - entitled "Forecast Analysis: Security Software Markets, Worldwide, 2009-2014, 2Q10 Update" - the business and IT research firm Gartner says that the global security software revenue is expected to surpass $16.5 billion in 2010, an 11.3% increase from last year's revenue of $14.8 billion.
"Most segments of the security software market will continue to grow over the next few years... Overall, security will remain one of the fastest-growing areas within the enterprise software market", said Ruggero Contu, Gartner's principal research analyst.
The good news for our industry, Infosecurity notes, is that the research firm says that security software markets will weather the current economic downturn better than in 2001 and 2002, mainly because the market conditions are dramatically different in terms of maturity, penetration, confidence in IT, and geographic and vertical mix.
"Security software vendors that have a balanced mix of channel, new license and maintenance revenue streams and flexibility in contractual terms, such as software as a service (SaaS), open source and outsourcing, have the strongest options for continued growth and to even out the risk", said Contu.
"Shrinking discretionary spending budgets have heightened competition for new maintenance and license revenue streams and placed a renewed emphasis on vendor performance and viability", he added.
Interestingly, the research firm says that the consumer security software market remains the largest security software segment, with 2010 revenue projected to reach $4.2 billion in 2010, up from $3.9 billion in 2009.
The endpoint protection platform (enterprise) market, meanwhile, is the No. 2 security software segment, with revenue on pace to reach $3 billion in 2010, up from $2.9 billion in 2009.
The security software market continues to benefit from prioritisation and demands related to compliance requirements, as well as the need to keep up with ever-increasing sophistication and volume in the threat landscape.
Gartner notes that identity access management (IAM) is a critical component of enterprises' security strategies, with its clients indicating that around 8% of their security budgets are currently dedicated to IAM.
This area is composed of technologies with varying levels of maturity and adoption; overall, the IAM market is estimated to grow to more than $12 billion by 2014.