While many companies are recalibrating budgets and resources in preparation for an economic downturn, a new report from Gartner projects that cybersecurity investments will continue to surge in 2023. The technology research and consulting firm estimates that global spending on security and risk management will increase by approximately 11.3 percent to $188.3 billion in 2023, a significant rise from the estimated 7.2 percent increase in security-related spending in 2022. This translates into a huge opportunity to expand your business. 

So, how are your customers spending their security budgets? According to Gartner, end-user spending for cloud security will realize the fastest growth—increasing by an estimated 26.8 percent. Other security solutions will realize significant growth as well.

• Applications security – up 24.7 percent
• Data privacy – up 16.9 percent
• Infrastructure protection – up 16.1 percent
• Identity access management – up 15.1 percent
• Data security – up 14.2 percent

In addition, security services including consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services are the largest category of spending, at almost $72 billion in 2022, and expected to reach $76.5 billion in 2023.

3 Major Factors Driving Security Growth

Gartner cites three major factors that are fueling organizations' increased security spending. 

1. Remote and hybrid work - As your customers continue to roll out remote, hybrid and work-from-anywhere policies, they are looking for ways to maximize their investments. As a result, IT teams are exploring technologies such as web applications firewall (WAF), access management (AM), endpoint protection platform (EPP) and secure web gateway (SWG). 

2. Increased adoption of Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) - ZTNA is the fastest-growing segment in network security and is forecast to grow 31 percent in 2023. As companies adjust to remote workforces, they are shifting away from secure access via VPNs to zero trust protection.

3. Shift to cloud-based models - As your clients migrate their data assets to the cloud, they often adopt multi-cloud environments. This can result in greater complexity and security risks as their IT teams manage multiple technologies.

According to Ruggero Contu, senior director analyst at Gartner, “The modern CISO needs to focus on an expanding attack surface created by digital transformation initiatives such as cloud adoption, IT/OT-IoT convergence, remote working and third-party infrastructure integration. Demand for technologies and services such as cloud security, application security, ZTNA and threat intelligence has been rising to tackle new vulnerabilities and risks arising from this exposure.”

Learn how Fortinet’s cloud security solutions can help you address your clients’ evolving security needs while maximizing their investments.