The data security market today resembles the U.S. gold rush of 1849. But instead of heading west to find gold in “them thar hills,” enterprises are scrambling to implement procedures and technologies to protect their data.
Allied Market Research estimates that the global data security market should be worth about $19 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit $54.23 billion by 2027. An annual growth rate sustained for many years at almost 18% makes it one of the hottest areas within IT. Within that total, the global data backup and recovery market is predicted to be worth as much as $15.2 billion by 2027, according to ReportLinker.
Slicing the market further, data replication is the largest segment within the backup and recovery segment. It accounts for about half of the total market. By 2027, it is forecast to be worth $7.8 billion. The U.S., Canada, Japan, China, and Europe combined comprise the bulk of the global market.
The rising complexity of security technology coupled with security perimeters now being highly dispersed have brought about an abrupt shift it the data security landscape. Right now, the prevalence of ransomware is electrifying the IT world. The ransomware attempt volume reached more than 300 million for first half of 2021, according to SonicWall.
Cloud Security
What this means is that on-premises security no longer dominates. Cloud security has taken over. But that has caused its own problems.
“Companies often struggle to understand where they data is located,” said Ashley Leonard, president and CEO of Syxsense.
If you don’t know where it is, how can you secure it?
“With COVID-19, we saw an explosion in home working, and many will continue to offer home working option,” Leonard said. “The challenge is understanding where data is located physically as well as how this impacts data privacy laws in different states or countries.”
The Rise of Managed Security
According to Statistica, half of all corporate data is now stored in the cloud, up from 30% in 2015. That’s where much of the budgets are going. And that’s why we are seeing the rise of the managed service provider (MSP) offering additional security services or pure play managed security service providers (MSSPs).
A report by Barracuda MSP, “The Evolving Landscape of The MSP Business Report 2021,” details how the MSP market is booming. It is security services that are leading the charge. Security is the hottest ticket within the overall IT services market. Greater demand for the cloud and automation of business processes are among the many drivers of a strong IT services market. But none are as strong a driver as the urgent need for higher-level security.
The report noted that SMBs are adopting managed services at a higher rate than ever before. Sixty-one percent of SMBs named enhanced security as the biggest reason behind their move from in-house to managed service-based security.
While traditionally, businesses tended to use MSPs for backup, business continuity, and disaster recovery (DR), they are now gobbling up services related to endpoint security, email security, and network security. SMBs and mid-sized enterprises face a daily battle to get work done. Their security burden has become such that it has evolved into a serious distraction from their core business.
Ransomware Havoc
Consider this: The annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR) examined about 80,000 incidents in 2020. More than 5,000 were confirmed data breaches. Despite all the lines of defense that exist, the human element matters the most. Phishing attacks are the top avenue of incursion. More than 30% of all incidents stemmed from it and 85% of all breaches.
This is playing havoc with the business world and they increasingly are adopting managed security services to safeguard their data. Managed services related to zero trust, ransomware protection, and two-factor authentication are in high demand.
As part of the remote working shift, secure authentication saw a boost largely fueled by concern over data breaches and privacy compliance regulations. According to Markets and Markets, the market for multi-factor authentication alone is projected to grow from $11.1 billion in 2021 to $23.5 billion by 2026.
See more: Data Security Trends 2021
Data Security Providers
There are a great many data security providers to choose from. Some offer purely in-house systems. But increasingly, they offer the traditional hardware, software, and appliances as well as managed services. Therefore, the list given here includes both on premises and managed services. Many of these vendors offer both.
Here is a sampling of the top data security vendors based on different markets:
Mega-providersÂ
- Dell
- McAfee
- Trend Micro
- Fortinet
- Microsoft
- Cisco
- IBM
