Security continues to be a top priority for governments and organisations in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. According to IDC, spending on security hardware, services and software in APAC is expected to increase by 16.7 percent to reach US$36 billion in 2023.
Security investments will remain resilient from 2023 to 2026 despite the economic slowdown and uncertainty risks. Spending on security-related products and services is expected to grow at a five-year CAGR of 15.4 percent from 2021 to 2026 to hit US$55 billion by 2026. Driving this spending are the rise in cyberattacks, digital transformation initiatives and continued hybrid workforce trends.
“With looming economic uncertainty and geopolitical instability, it would be natural for Asia-Pacific organisations to turtle-up on their security spending. Yet, IDC still sees increased security budgets and growth over the next few years to address the more prevalent sophisticated attacks and constantly metamorphosizing threat landscape. Security and business leaders must work together to continuously justify their security spending,” said Christian Fam, Research Manager, Security Services of IDC Asia/Pacific.
Top spending industries will be banking, financial services and insurances, telecommunications, government, and manufacturing. These industries will account for more than half of the total security spending. Industries seeing the fastest growth in 2023 are state/local government, utilities, and telecommunications.
“As per the latest IDC survey, over 70 percent of the surveyed organisations have experienced cyberattacks in the last 12 months, out of which, 55 percent have paid ransom to avert operational disruptions and financial losses. Businesses in the region are increasing investments in tools and solutions to achieve cyber resiliency against cyber threats,” said Sharad Kotagi, Market Analyst of IT Spending Guides at IDC Asia/Pacific.
The need for security capabilities to support complex IT environments, including network, cloud, and endpoints, continues to see high demand and shortage of skilled cybersecurity resources, creating opportunities for vendors and channel partners to provide security service options.
Security services will dominate the security markets, accounting for nearly half of the security spending throughout the forecast period, growing at a 14.7 percent five-year CAGR. Managed services will continue to be the largest category in the security services market– delivering around 40 percent of the spending, followed by consulting services and integration services.
China continues to be at the forefront in security investments in the region, accounting for more than 40 percent of total APAC security spending in 2023, with a five-year CAGR of 18.8 percent. The next two top spending countries are Australia and India.
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