Managed security services are projected to grow 45% over the next 5 years, according to a new report from Infonetics. Major factors include:
- An increase in the volume, variety, and complexity of threats of all types
- Security product sprawl
- A distributed workforce and the proliferation of BYOD erasing network perimeters
- As IT infrastructure continues its march into the cloud, security will follow: cloud-based security service revenue is forecast by Infonetics to grow at a 10.8% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2012 to 2017, to $9.2 billion.
Though prominent SaaS providers like Google and Microsoft are transforming the standalone security business and bundling security functionality with business apps (Google Docs/Drive and Office 365), they remain serious competition for traditional managed security vendors
“The long-term outlook for managed security services, and especially cloud services, is quite strong, but there are some potential stumbling blocks,” cautions Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for security at Infonetics Research. “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.”