Worldwide end-user spending on security and risk management will reach a staggering $215 billion in 2024, marking a substantial increase of 14.3 percent from the spending levels of 2023, which were estimated at $188.1 billion, according to the recent forecast by Gartner.
Shailendra Upadhyay, Senior Research Principal at Gartner, shed light on the driving forces behind this surge in spending. He stated, “The continuous adoption of cloud, the persistent hybrid workforce, rapid emergence and utilization of generative AI (GenAI), and the evolving regulatory environment are compelling security and risk management (SRM) leaders to ramp up their investments in security and risk management.”
To effectively navigate these changes, organizations are strategically enhancing their security posture by embracing technical security capabilities that provide comprehensive visibility and responsiveness across the entire digital ecosystem. Furthermore, they are restructuring the security function to foster agility while upholding security standards.
Among the sectors poised for significant growth in 2024, spending on data privacy and cloud security stands out, with each segment expected to witness a growth rate of more than 24 percent year-over-year.
Privacy remains a paramount concern for organizations, given the continuous evolution of regulations governing the processing of personal data, especially in light of the growing usage of AI. Gartner predicts that by 2025, approximately 75 percent of the world’s population will have their personal data protected under modern privacy regulations.
The growth in public cloud services is a key factor bolstering spending on cloud security tools. The combined spending on cloud access security brokers software (CASB) and cloud workload protection platforms (CWPP) is projected to reach $7 billion in 2024, reflecting a notable increase of 24.7 percent from 2023. Moreover, there is an anticipated uptick in demand for cloud-based detection and response solutions, such as endpoint detection and response (EDR) and managed detection and response (MDR), in 2024.
An intriguing revelation from the forecast indicates that the security services segment, encompassing consulting, IT outsourcing, implementation, and hardware support, is expected to represent a substantial portion of the spending. Predicted to total $90 billion in 2024, this segment is set to witness an 11 percent increase from 2023. In fact, security services are anticipated to make up a significant 42 percent of the total security and risk management end-user spending for 2024, solidifying its position as a vital area of investment in the domain.
