Gartner forecasts 7% jump in global information security spend in 2017

According to global analytics firm Gartner and its latest global expenditure forecast, companies are no longer taking information security for granted.

The firm notes that worldwide coin dropped on information security products is set to increase by 7% year-on-year in 2017. That’s an overall spend of US$86.4-billion.

Driving this increase are “continued data breaches and growing demands for application security testing as part of DevOps”, Gartner notes in a press release.

“Spending on emerging application security testing tools, particularly interactive application security testing (IAST), will contribute to the growth of this segment through 2021,” it adds.

Notably, spend is set to increase yet again to US$93-billion in 2018.

Gartner also cites the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, set to be implemented in 2018, as a major influencer for firms’ buying decisions.

Companies are set to spend well over $80bn in 2017 on information security solutions

“The GDPR has caused an overall panic and unease among organisations in Europe, but will also have a global effect since multinationals will also need to adhere to the new law,” the firm notes.

Data loss prevention is regarded as one of the focal points for company spend both prior and after the regulation is implemented.

Beyond 2018 and the EU, the firm notes that Chinese companies will look within its own nation for security products, impacting US and EU companies. This is due to its new cybersecurity law which came into effect at the end of May 2017.

“Despite an increase of 24 per cent in 2016, Gartner expects end-user spending growth in Asia/Pacific to return to single-digit yearly growth from 2018 onward, as a result of a decline in average selling prices, due to the more competitive pricing of Chinese solutions,” it adds.