IT security budgets soar

Defensive Posture

IT security sales will triple in value to $21 billion by the end of 2005, compared with the $6.7bn recorded in 2000.

This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)of 25.5%, according to IDC which makes the forecasts.

Driving the security sales bonanza is the "growing corporate appetite for remote LAN, Internet, extranet/intranet, and wireless access services," according to Allan Carey, IDC analyst. This in turn will "drive the need for advanced information security services as technologies for circumventing network security systems continue to keep pace with the technologies designed to defend against them."

Financial institutions will continue to lead the way on spending on IT security services, accounting for $848m of the total market in 2000, and $2.2bn in 2005.