IDC: Global Security Spending to Reach Nearly $120 Billion by 2021 -

Security hardware, software and services spending will increase globally at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.6 percent between 2016 and 2021 and total nearly $120 billion by 2021, according to the "Worldwide Semiannual Security Spending Guide" from research firm International Data Corp (IDC).

Other notable IDC global security market predictions included:

Security services spending will be led by managed security services ($15.3 billion) and integration services ($12.5 billion) between 2016 and 2021.

Managed security services represent the fastest-growing security category (14.3 percent CAGR) during the five-year forecast period.

The fastest-growing security sector over the forecast period will be infrastructure with a CAGR of 11.8 percent.

Spending focused on endpoint protection, identity and access management (IAM) and vulnerability management will make up more than 75 percent of the security software total this year.

Security spending in the federal/central government sector is expected to increase at a CAGR of 10.9 percent over the forecast period. Meanwhile, security spending in the banking segment will grow at a 10.7 percent CAGR.

Large and very large companies (those with more than 500 employees) will be responsible for roughly two-thirds of all security-related spending over the forecast period. Furthermore, very large businesses (more than 1,000 employees) are expected to surpass the $50 billion security spending level in 2019.

IDC also indicated that the following factors may drive the worldwide security market's growth:

Evolving Threat Landscape: Malware, ransomware and other sophisticated cyber threats are leading organizations to deploy advanced security solutions to address such problems.

Increasing Regulatory Pressures: Many organizations are prioritizing data security to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which takes effect in May. Also, recent data breaches to Equifax and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) may lead to new data security regulations in a variety of industries.

Architectural Changes: Worldwide spending on digital transformation technologies may reach $1.2 trillion this year, IDC stated. The application of digital transformation technologies to human processes may result in architectural changes that drive organizations to implement security solutions to protect sensitive data stored on-premises or in the cloud.

As worldwide security spending increases, the demand for managed security services likely will increase as well.

The worldwide managed security services market is projected to expand at a CAGR of 14.6 percent between 2016 and 2021, market research firm MarketsandMarkets said in a prepared statement. In addition, MarketsandMarkets has estimated that the global managed security services segment will be worth nearly $33.7 billion by 2021.