Despite the changing geopolitical situation and consequent inflationary pressure, European IT security spending will continue to rise at a sustained pace, with expected growth of 10,8% year on year (YoY) in 2022, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).
IDC’s new Worldwide Security Spending Guide highlights that European IT security spending will reach almost $47-billion in 2022. The forecast five-year (2021-2026) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is 9,4%, surpassing $66-billion in 2026.
Security services will have the highest growth, driven by the lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals. over the forecast period (10,2% CAGR). Services will also represent the biggest spending category, followed by software and hardware.
The highest IT security spending YoY growth rate in 2022 in the region will be in Czech Republic and Poland, both above 15%. Over 2021-2026, Czech Republic will still be the fastest growing country, followed by a Western European bloc composed by Belgium, France, Germany, and Switzerland.
“The evolution of the European cyber security market continues to progress at high speed. The increased threat landscape, the shift to hybrid work environments and greater reliance on cloud services have expanded organization’s attack surface that needs protection and monitoring,” says Stefano Perini, research manager at IDC European Data & Analytics. “This has pushed European organisations to upgrade their security infrastructure, especially in cloud, network, and data security.”
Banking is the biggest European industry for IT security spending in 2022, at more than $6-billion. More advanced in cybersecurity maturity, banking is set to further increase spend with a driving focus on building cyber resiliency.
Discrete manufacturing and professional services are forecast to be the second and third top spenders on security in 2022 (with respectively more than $5-billion and $4-billion spending). With cyber-attacks increasing in volume and complexity, discrete manufacturing companies are having to secure gaps in their IT and OT cyber defenses, whilst professional services firms are putting an increased focus on cloud and endpoint security solutions.
Government will be the fastest growing IT security spending industry in 2022 (11,9%), followed by transportation and wholesale, both above 11%.
The top three security priorities for the government sector are cloud workload protection, securing collaboration platforms and data security. In transportation supply chain security is the key focus, for wholesale stronger edge security and protecting remote devices and contactless payments systems.