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Lack of Skills Raising Demand for IT Security Services

IT Security Services

Organizations continue to feel the pressure to find the right people with the right skills to grow their security teams, particularly given the 24/7 nature of security operations functions. These ongoing skills shortages are driving demand for security services, particularly security outsourcing, managed security services and security consulting. The security services market in India will grow from US$885 million in 2018 to US$1 billion in 2019, an increase of 13 percent year on year.

“CISOs are increasingly concerned about the quality of security services currently available, creating an opportunity for new security services providers that can offer higher quality services,” said Siddharth Deshpande, research director at Gartner.

Existing global data privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), as well as upcoming national-level regulations like India’s proposed personal data protection bill, are raising awareness of security and risk management issues.

“CISOs are under increasing pressure to ensure their organizations do not become victims of external attackers, while simultaneously maintaining compliance with regulations,” said Deshpande. “Obtaining funding for security projects has become easier for CISOs today than in the past, due to increased awareness. The challenge is for them to spend the security budget judiciously and improve the security maturity of their organization over time.”

“Improving security maturity goes beyond just investments in technology. It requires an appropriate focus on processes and people,” said Mr. Deshpande. “Security and risk management is a critical part of any digital business initiative, with the ultimate goal of driving trust and resilience throughout the organization.”

Enterprise spending on information security products and services in India is on pace to reach US$1.7 billion in 2018, an increase of 12.5 percent from 2017, according to the latest forecast from Gartner, Inc. In 2019, the market is forecast to total US$1.9 billion.

“Continued focus on building detection and response capabilities are bolstering security spending in India,” he said, adding, “Highly publicized and high-impact security incidents in India — like the recent incident with Cosmos Bank — reinforce the need for organizations to treat security and risk management as a top business priority,” said Deshpande.

Security incidents often happen because organizations have not paid attention to basic security hygiene best practices. “Continued breaches reinforce the need for CIOs and chief information security officers (CISOs) to view sensitive data and IT systems as critical infrastructure and prevent, detect and respond to incidents appropriately,” added Deshpande.

There are five key enterprise security product segments that will bolster growth in 2019, namely, integrated risk management software, data security, infrastructure protection, identity and access management and network security equipment.

These established security product segments benefit from strong growth rates thanks to net new adopters who are looking to rapidly increase their investments in security technology. Additionally, existing buyers of these technologies are looking to acquire more-advanced capabilities in these areas.

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