Security software market bucks downturn

The growth is ascribed to increasing data security and privacy concerns, and the rise in targeted attacks against corporate infrastructure.

McAfee grew at the greatest rate last year, increasing revenues by 20.5 per cent, but a market share of 10.9 per cent wasn't enough to close down Symantec's market dominance. The market giant, with a 22 per cent market share saw a much lower growth rate of 7.2 per cent, however.

“In 2008, the security market did not show any noticeable impact from the economic downturn,” said Ruggero Contu, principal research analyst at Gartner. “A double-digit growth in a challenging economic climate shows that security remains a key priority for CIOs and IT security leaders.”

Appliance areas that saw the highest growth in 2008 were security information and event management, e-mail security boundary and secure web gateways. Web access management and endpoint protection platform were the slowest performing segments.

See original article on scmagazineuk.com