Price increases in the security market of up to 20 per cent due, in part, to the US exchange rate are set to put a dampener on security spending this year, according to the latest forecast from Gartner.
Price increases of as much as 20 per cent will drive organisations to forgo security purchasing in 2015, especially in Europe the report said.
As most products in security originate from the US, Gartner predicts its dollar appreciation will trigger significant price changes in the conversion from local currencies to US dollars.
Gartner expects the main customer response will be to forgo some spending for the next quarter and beyond. The firm said the rebound of 2016 will be due to a combination of deferred purchases realised in 2016 and the stabilisation of currency exchange rates from 2016 onward.
The report also states that worldwide spending on information security will reach $US75.4 billion in 2015, an increase of 4.7 per cent over 2014.
The analyst firm said the increase in spending is being driven by government initiatives, increased legislation and high-profile data breaches. Security testing, IT outsourcing, and identity and access management present the biggest growth opportunities for technology providers, the report stated.
Spending in areas such as endpoint protection platforms and consumer security software is starting to see commoditisation, leading to a downgrade in the forecast for these segments in 2015.
Gartner noted that while the visibility and growing awareness of the impact of security threats keeps attention on security, the bulk of the security software market is composed of mature technology areas where the penetration rate is already high.
Gartner research analyst, Elizabeth Kim, said, “Interest in security technologies is increasingly driven by elements of digital business, particularly Cloud, mobile computing and now also the Internet of Things, as well as by the sophisticated and high-impact nature of advanced targeted attacks.”
Kim went on to say that this focus is driving investment in emerging offerings, such as endpoint detection and remediation tools, threat intelligence and Cloud security tools, such as encryption. However, strength in these emerging segments can not compensate for the downgrade of the larger mature segments being commoditised.
