Security software revenue in Europe, the Middle East and Africa is likely to hit €2.4 billion (1.6 billion) this year, according to a new Gartner report. This figure is likely to rise to around €3.5 billion (2.4 billion) by 2011.
The report said that the market was growing at a rate of 9.6 per cent with Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa regions expected to grow at 13.6 per cent and 14.7 per cent a year from 2006 to 2011.
Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner said that the anti-virus market will remain the largest revenue market in EMEA making up more than half the total security software revenue market in the region this year.
"The consumer antivirus segment will see a much faster year-on-year growth than the enterprise antivirus segment, bolstering growth in the overall security software market," he said.
The report found that many organisations were changing their approach to buying security software with firm focusing more on fulfilling policy requirements and taking a more holistic view of security issues.
Contu said that technical evaluations of products were now more commonplace. He added that organisations were now looking for operational efficiency and required better functionality to consolidate systems management.
He said that there was a gradual consolidation around fewer players in the market. "This trend is also mirrored in customers' preference to deal with two or more vendors that already trust each other's products and practices," said Contu.
Companies such as IBM, Computer Associates, BMC Software and HP have been expanding into the security arena with products such as access and identity management. Other players such as Microsoft, Oracle and Novell have bought themselves into the game with acquisitions of security companies over the last few years.
Contu said that security is becoming more complex and difficult for single vendors to handle.
"Customers require products that integrate with their security architecture rather than disconnected point solutions and it is essential for large and small players to partner with best-of-needs vendors," said Contu. "Only those vendors offering good integrated production, based on an already established and trusted technological partnership, will be best placed for success."
