'Security spending in India to touch $1.12-bn mark this year'

Total spending on security of enterprises in the country is set to touch USD 1.12-billion mark in 2016, up 10 per cent from last year's USD 1.01 billion, according to Gartner.

The research firm also maintained that security spending will continue to grow in 2017, the year revenue is expected to reach USD 1.24 billion.

"The strong growth in the security services market will be primarily because customers need external services to transform their security posture in the digital business era," Siddharth Deshpande, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner, said in a statement.

Security services are typically categorised as either implementation, consulting or security outsourcing services, and many providers are beginning to offer all three categories to address customer requirements, he added.
 

Revenue from security services accounted for 61 per cent of this total revenue in 2015, and this proportion will increase to 66 per cent by 2020, Gartner noted.

In 2016, large enterprises are seen increasing their security budgets to enhance their security programme, and several midmarket and enterprise organisations creating new space for security spending as part of their technology budget, Deshpande pointed out.

Key security initiatives for a majority of organisations in 2016 include security operations, incident response network and data centre security, identity governance and administration, mobile and cloud security governance, advanced threat defence, application security, security policy and program development and governance, risk and compliance (GRC).

Several organisations in India are now realising that a purely technology centric approach to their security strategy will not suffice, Gartner notes. As a result, many organisations are beginning to pay equal emphasis on the people and process elements, it said.

Digital business moves at a faster pace than traditional business, and traditional security approaches designed for maximum control are no longer expected to work in the new era of digital innovation.

"Risk and security leaders must understand the risks associated with business unit innovation, and balance the imperative to protect the enterprise with the need to adopt innovative technology approaches," Deshpande said.