The increase in remote and hybrid work, the transition from virtual private networks (VPNs) to zero trust network access (ZTNA), and the shift to cloud-based delivery models are the three major factors influencing growth in security spending, according to information technology research and consulting company Gartner, Inc.

“The modern CISO (Chief Information Security Officer) needs to focus on an expanding attack surface created by digital transformation initiatives such as cloud adoption, IT/OT-IoT (Information Technology, Operational Technology, Internet of Things) 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”, said Ruggero Contu, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.

Information security and risk management spending 

Spending on information security and risk management products and services will grow 11.3% to reach more than US$188.3 billion next year. Cloud security is the category forecast to have the strongest growth over the next two years, Gartner predicts.

 

As organizations increase focus on Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) issues, as well as third-party risk, cybersecurity risk and privacy risk, Gartner forecasts that the integrated risk management (IRM) market will show double-digit growth through 2024, until greater competition results in cheaper solutions.

Security services, including consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services, is the largest category of spending, at nearly $72 billion in 2022, and it is expected to reach $76.5 billion in 2023, Gartner estimates.

Push towards remote and hybrid work, ZTNA and cloud-based delivery models

Corporations are coming around to remote and hybrid work, ZTNA and cloud-based delivery models – as are cyber criminals, who understand that the above three factors are here to stay and will continue to drive security investment.

With the rapid rise in remote and hybrid work, the demand for technologies that facilitate a secure in-office and work-from-home environment will increase beyond 2022, resulting in organizations exploring solutions that offer quick return on investment. Gartner expects that this  will mean technologies such as web application firewalls (WAF), access management (AM), endpoint protection platform (EPP) and secure web gateway (SWG) will witness short-term demand through the end of the year.  

With cyber attacks showing no signs of slowing down, there is a growing trend to use ZTNA not only for remote working, but also for in-person work. Gartner identifies ZTNA as the fastest-growing segment in network security, forecast to grow 36% in 2022 and 31% in 2023, even as organizations reduce dependence on VPNs for secure access and move to zero trust protection.

ZTNA is considered as the security framework of the future by Gartner, who predicts that by 2025, at least 70% of new remote access deployments will rely on ZTNA rather than VPN services.

The growth and maturation of the cloud marketplace represents a fundamental shift in security and risk management philosophy. However, embracing the cloud is not without potential headaches, as it also poses increased security risks along with the complexity of operating and managing multiple technologies. This will lead to a push towards cloud security as well as growth in market share of cloud-native solutions, according to Gartner.

“The combined market for cloud access security brokers (CASB) and cloud workload protection platform (CWPP) will grow 26.8% to reach $6.7 billion in 2023. Demand for cloud-based detection and response solutions — such as endpoint detection and response (EDR) and managed detection and response (MDR) — will also increase in the coming years”, Gartner projects.

To conclude, corporations are not slowing down their cybersecurity and technology innovation investments despite a rise in economic uncertainty. As cloud computing gains more importance as a treasury technology, the vulnerabilities associated with it will also increase.

Treasury, thought of as the superintendent of payment security, will have to mitigate such security risks to protect their organizations. For many, ramping up cloud security spending to make their cloud environments more secure will be critical for effective cloud service operations, as will it help them stay on top of the latest cloud security issues and threats that can afflict a corporation’s bottom line and brand.