Security software revenue totalled USD 13.5 billion in 2008

Worldwide security software market revenue totalled $13.5 billion in 2008, an increase of 18.6 per cent from 2007 revenue of $11.3 billion, according to Gartner, Inc.

Analysts said there was an increasing demand for appliance-based products, particularly within certain segments such as, e-mail security and secure web gateway markets.

“In 2008, the security market did not show any noticeable impact from the economic downturn,” said Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner. “A double-digit growth in a challenging economic climate shows that security remains a key priority for CIOs and IT security leaders.”

Globally, data security and privacy, along with the need to protect IT infrastructure from the ever increasing sophisticated and targeted attacks, are among the key drivers fuelling the growth of IT security software spending.

The combined top five vendors’ market share is gradually falling in favour of smaller players.

Symantec continued to be the market leader, as it accounted for 22 per cent of worldwide security software in 2008. Despite this, the company’s market share was down from 2007 when it accounted for 24.4 per cent of the market. McAfee experienced the strongest growth rate among the top five vendors, as its revenue increased 20.5 per cent in 2008.

Web access management (WAM) and endpoint protection platform (EPP) were the slowest performing segments.

Eastern Europe was the fastest region with 35 per cent growth in 2008. It was followed by Middle East and Africa, Latin America and Asia/Pacific regions which saw growth increasing of around 30 per cent.

“During times of economic uncertainty and budget restrictions, IT security leaders increasingly need to show business value and cost-effectiveness for security measures, and this has impacted and slowed sales cycles,” concluded Contu. “However, new product delivery methods, such as software as a service (SaaS) and host based offerings, and expected increasing interest from the small and midsize business (SMB) sector will sustain growth in the market in 2009.”

In 2009, Gartner predicts that the security software market will show signs of slowdown but will continue to grow at around 9 per cent.