The worldwide computer security software market is set to grow some 8% in 2009 to a total value of $14.5 billion, compared to growth in 2008 of 19%.

Figures come from research group Gartner who have forecast 2010 growth of 13%, taking the market’s worth to $16.3 billion.

Europe’s share of the 2009 total market value is €3.2 billion in 2009, which represents a 7% growth from 2008.

Ruggero Contu, an analyst at Gartner, said:
“Although the worldwide security software market is affected by the economic downturn, the growth will continue to be strong in 2009 as security remains a critical area where drastic cuts cannot be afforded. In the medium term, the greatest growth opportunities will come from software as a service (SaaS), appliance based offering and small and medium businesses (SMBs), which are in security catch-up mode compared with large companies and therefore spend a higher percentage of their budgets on security.”

Mr Contu went on to say that:
“The security software market in 2008 was characterised by a high level of consolidation with the examples of McAfee purchasing Secure Computing, Symantec and Sophos acquiring MessageLabs and Ultimaco, respectively. This is a sector where further consolidation is expected in the near future.

“End-users are gradually moving to better-integrated multi-products, particularly in areas such as endpoint security and identity and access management. Vendors offering good integration in an already established and trusted technology partnership will be best-placed for success, as buyers prefer to deal with two or more vendors that already trust each other’s software and practices.”

The figures also revealed that in 2009, consumer security will remain the largest segment (in terms of total software revenue) in the security software market, representing 25 per cent of the total market.

Gartner goes on to estimates that it will account for $3.6 billion, growing nearly 5% in 2009. The enterprise security software market, formed by a number of segments including endpoint protection platform, email security boundary and user provisioning, is predicted to account for $10.9 billion, reaching 9% growth in 2009.

Gartner claims to be the leading information technology research and advisory company.

Guest Article by Neil Camp