Security software market shows steady growth as threats explode

Faced with an ever-increasing number of threats, IT administrators continue to increase spending on security software, a new survey suggests. A recent report from Gartner shows revenue in the sector increased 7.5 percent in 2011 over the year previous. The gains come even as IT spending overall has stagnated due to uncertain economic conditions worldwide.

Altogether, revenues totaled some $17.7 billion last year, with market leading Symantec making up a fifth of that total. Gartner says the company's success in the sector is due to a continuing expansion outside of the antivirus software market and into other sectors, including storage and encryption. Coming in a distant second and third were competitors McAfee and Trend Micro, both making up about seven percent of the market.

"Growth in the 2011 security market reflects a continuation in demand for consumer and enterprise security tools", Gartner research director Ruggero Contu says. That demand seems in direct correlation to the increase in threats, especially from so-called 'hacktivist' groups like the now-defunct LulzSec and Anonymous.

Contu also believes the security market in general is undergoing a switch from the traditional software-based model to one where security is seen as a service. This probably has much to do with the increasing number of software developers -- antivirus and otherwise -- who are turning to the cloud as a method of application delivery.

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