STAMFORD, Conn. – The worldwide security revenue market totaled $10.4 billion in 2007, an increase of almost 20 per cent from 2006, where revenues totaled $8.7 billion, says a new study.

The Gartner report also noted that there is an increasing shift toward offering appliance based products, particularly within certain segments such as e-mail security and secure web gateway markets.

“Compliance, data leakage and privacy issues, along with the need to tackle the fast evolving and sophisticated threat environment, are among the major drivers fueling the growth of spending on security, stated Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner.

The segments that bolstered security software growth were e-mail security boundary appliances and security information and event management (SIEM) tools with 45.4 per cent and 32.1 per cent increases in 2007, respectively.

“Compliance is the primary driver for the adoption of SIEM tools, at the same time they are also adopted to tackle the increasing threats from targeted attacks and fraud,” Contu added. “In addition, the liability that spam and malware have on corporate systems is among the key issues driving spending on e-mail security boundary tools.”

He also said that prioritization, selection and maintenance of technology continues to be a major issue for organizations because of pressure from government agencies and industry standards to demonstrate compliance with the various regulatory requirements. They also need to show business value and cost-effectiveness for security measures.

Enterprise anti-virus and web access management (WAM) were the slowest performing segments. Enterprise anti-virus is gradually decreasing as a standalone purchase in favor of broader endpoint security platforms, where anti-virus is only one of the required components. Despite being a mature technology widely deployed by organizations, WAM grew at a double digit rate of 12.7 per cent.

In terms of vendors, Symantec and McAfee remained the leading players in 2007 holding 26.6 per cent and 11.8 per cent market share respectively. Trend Micro came in third with almost eight per cent market share.

EMC more than tripled its revenue year-on-year and saw its performance primarily influenced as a result of acquisitions. In addition, Gartner indicated that Microsoft s entry into the consumer security protection market will further erode pricing in this segment which eventually will trickle into the professional market, starting with the small office/home office (SOHO), and consequently moving into the SMB market.

“Price competition among vendors is also bringing prices down in the more mature standalone market segments, such as anti-virus. Changes in the way vendors will package and price their solutions in the future will also ultimately impact pricing and make some security technologies as pervasive as PCs,” said Contu.

From a region perspective, Latin America was the fastest region that grew at a rate of more than 40 per cent in 2007. It was followed by the Middle East and Africa and Asia/Pacific regions which increased 35 per cent and 27 per cent respectively. North America and Western Europe continued to lead the market with market shares of 47.5 per cent and 31.7 per cent respectively.

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