Managed Security Market Booming

For years, the big fear of the cloud was security. Fear clearly drives buying and this apprehension is helping move the security market to new heights.

Infonetics Research says the managed security market will exceed $9 billion by 2017, this according to its “Cloud and CPE Managed Security Services” report.

The definition of security has changed with the advent of the cloud and managed services. Here, Infonetics looks at both cloud and customer premises equipment (CPE) focused security services.

And, this market is poised to grow over the next five years at rather stunning 45 percent. Driving this growth, among other factors, are BYOD, an increasingly disperse workforce, and the fact that security threats aren’t just growing, but becoming more complex and varied.

Infonetics’ numbers, though, are kind of a best case scenario, as there are several areas of caution.

“The long-term outlook for managed security services, and especially cloud services, is quite strong, but there are some potential stumbling blocks,” said Jeff Wilson, Infonetics principal analyst for security. “Improvements in the efficacy and ease of management of security products could decrease the urgency to move to the cloud, and regulatory drivers are forcing some customers to keep all data on premise.”

The cloud sector is looking at healthy growth, projected to hit $9.2 billion by 2017 with a CAGR of 10.8 percent.

Frost & Sullivan Has Different View

Frost & Sullivan this February released a similar report, titled “Analysis of the Global Managed Security Market,” albeit with very different results. This research house puts the entire market at $66.5 billion last year, rising to $139 billion by 2021. These numbers, however, include physical security.

Frost & Sullivan’s analysis of the market, however, is still in line with Infonetics.

"In current times, many organizations remain highly cost-conscious, motivating them to outsource their security requirements and reduce operating costs," said Frost & Sullivan Aerospace, Defense & Security Research Analyst Anthony Leather. "Even while security remains a priority for organizations, chief decision makers are looking to the industry to provide them with the most advanced security solutions at the most competitive prices."

The researchers believe that outsourcing to a managed security service provider (MSSP) makes sense, as the number and sophistication of attacks keeps increasing. With an MSSP, the outside provider can handle increasing complex and layered security while the client can focus on what is strategic to their core business.