Australian security spending to grow 11.5 per cent in 2024: Gartner

Australian end-user spending on security and risk management is projected to grow 11.5 per cent to a total of AU$7.74 billion in 2024, according to research from Gartner.

In New Zealand, security spending is forecast to grow 11 per cent to reach almost NZ$1 billion in 2024.

Gartner said that security services is by far the largest category of security spending in both countries, while cloud security and data privacy will be the fastest growing market segments in the year ahead.

Four factors driving global security spending

Globally, spending on security and risk management is forecast to grow 14.3 per cent to a total of US$215 billion in 2024.

Gartner said this will be buoyed by four factors: the continuous adoption of cloud, continuous hybrid workforce, rapid emergence and use of generative AI, and the evolving regulatory environment.

Spending on data privacy and cloud security are forecast to increase by more than 24 per cent.

Continued growth in public cloud services is expected to bolster spending on cloud security tools.

In the cloud security segment, the combined spending on cloud access security brokers software and cloud workload protection platforms is projected to total US$7 billion in 2024, up 24.7 per cent YoY.

Demand for cloud-based detection and response solutions, such as endpoint detection and response and managed detection and response, is also expected to increase in 2024.

Spending on security services including consulting, IT outsourcing, implementation and hardware support is forecast to increase 11 per cent to a total US$90 billion.

Security services is expected to represent 42 per cent of total security and risk management end-user spending in 2024, and to remain the largest area of security and risk management spending in 2024.

“The continuous adoption of cloud, continuous hybrid workforce, rapid emergence and use of generative AI, and the evolving regulatory environment are forcing security and risk management leaders to enhance their security and risk management spending,” Gartner senior research principal Shailendra Upadhyay said.

“At the same time, they are focusing their efforts by adopting technical security capabilities that provide far greater visibility and responsiveness across the organisation’s entire digital ecosystem and restructuring the way the security function operates to enable agility without compromising security.”