Australian managed security spending to grow as COVID-19 restrictions boost demand

Organisations across Australia and New Zealand are forecast to increase their investments in managed security, threat detection and response, data security, privacy and other IT security services.

According to a report from IDC, security services revenue in Australia is set to reach A$5.5 billion by 2024, while New Zealand will see sales reach NZ$821 million in the same period. When combined, the growth represents a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3 percent for 2020-2024.

IDC ANZ associate market analyst for IT services Emily Lynch said managed security services are predicted to have the strongest growth across security-related services. She added that COVID-19 has changed security priorities significantly and managed security services stand to benefit.

"Organisations are facing additional challenges in maintaining their security environments. Working from home and remote learning expand the cyber-attack surface and exponentially increase the number of vulnerable endpoints," Lynch said.

The increase in remote working also accelerated demand for network security, identity access management and SD-WAN solutions.

Security is now also expected to work “anytime and anywhere” just like employees and students are expected to.

"Many ANZ organisations intend to invest in specialist managed security services providers to help them navigate new ways of working at scale and improve their threat detection and response capabilities,” Lynch said.

“These investments enhance an organisation's security posture and demonstrate a commitment to growing trust in their partners and ecosystems.”

In its recent survey on ANZ IT decision-makers, IDC found 81 percent of New Zealand organisations and 73 percent of Australian organisations are set to invest further in managed security service providers. But IDC said COVID-19 had placed more pressure on MSSPs to be flexible, empathetic and reliable.

"The pandemic has caused a massive shake-up in external services needs, and customers must now evaluate whether their current services provider ticks the new boxes created by COVID-19,” Lynch said.

“Although not all customers are facing cutbacks, for many organisations, gestures of additional support and goodwill will go a long way to bolstering trust through the partnership and ensuring repeat business when the time comes for contract renewal."