Mumbai: Spending on security and risk management by end users is forecast to touch $2.6 billion this year in India, according to Gartner Inc, an increase of 9.4% from 2021.

Almost $1 billion of this will be directed towards core security services, while the rest will be spent on application, cloud, data and identity management solutions.

Hybrid work environments are driving expenditures on cloud security and integrated risk management.

Cybersecurity will remain top priority for Indian CIOs this year, the 2022 Gartner CIO and Technology Executive Survey has revealed.

Out of the total CIOs surveyed in India, 64% said they will increase their spending on technologies related to cyber and information security in 2022, higher than the global average of 57%.

“Covid-19 was a pivotal moment in the way organizations approached risk or prepared for disruptions. Now, security leaders are putting risk management at the centre of their security and business strategies,” said Prateek Bhajanka, senior principal research analyst at Gartner.

Increased geo-political tensions are also adding to the concerns around cybersecurity threats globally, he added.

The reason that the security services market is expected to report maximum growth is because Indian organizations traditionally have been relying on their managed security services partners and even the boutique security firms to help them in achieving their security objectives,

“And hence, you will see that the security services market or security services industry is quite large, approximately $1 billion, and it is already growing at a pace of 4.4%,” it said.

Organizations have started thinking about moving network security to the cloud and envisioning network security in the cloud. Therefore, the security services market is expected to grow further, it said.

Gartner research shows that there is a significant shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Therefore, end-user organizations in India often engage with security service providers to meet their cybersecurity objectives.

As a result, spending on security services is forecast to total $1 billion in 2022, the highest among all segments. This will be followed by spending on network security equipment and infrastructure protection.

“Indian leaders responsible for security and risk management need to adopt a breach mindset because security incidents are inevitable in the current era,” said Bhajanka “They should prioritize spending on building detection and response capabilities, and not just technologies. This will help them reduce time to detect and time to recover from incidents.”

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