According to a report by AMI Partners released Wednesday, overall global spending on security products and services reached US$19 billion in 2011. It added that spending by small and midsize businesses (SMBs) would increase at a compound annual growth rate of over 10 percent between 2011 and 2016.
AMI Partners highlighted several key factors driving business security concerns and the adoption of cloud-based security including the proliferation of mobile devices and bring-your-own-device (NYOD), and employee demand for access to corporate data anytime, anywhere. These heightened a company's risk exposure and were increasingly unmanageable for SMBs. "Security is a complex issue with rapidly changing permutations," said Hugh Gibbs, vice president of research for EMEA, AMI Partners. "Widespread lack of technical resources and expertise is leading to an increasing desire to outsource the problem among SMBs. This is presenting major opportunities for managed service solutions, particularly for skilled, local channel partners and managed security service providers (MSSPs)." To tap the opportunities here, the research firm urged IT security vendors to provide viable offerings such as easy-to-deploy cloud services at attractively-priced service bundles which it said could increase potential uptake by four to five times. Market players should also expand the availability of their security offerings via different avenues including local channel partner, retail stores and service providers.
