The Hindu Business Line : Asia-Pacific security software market to grow to $1.7 b: IDC

The Asia-Pacific security software market is expected to rise to $1.7 billion by 2010 from $805 million in 2005, with India, China, and Malaysia fuelling the growth, according to research firm IDC.

According to results from IDC's Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) Semi-annual Security Software Tracker, the security software market in Asia-Pacific totalled $805 million in 2005, a growth of over 23 per cent year-over-year.

"IDC forecasts the Asia-Pacific (excluding Japan) security software market to rise to $1.7 billion by 2010, representing a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 15 per cent," IDC said, adding that Australia is expected to remain the largest market in the region in 2010.

The secure content management market was very strong in 2005, achieving a growth of 34 per cent over the previous year. It retains the majority share of the security software market in the Asia-Pacific, accounting for more than 57 per cent of the market. Demand for protection against viruses, spyware, spam, and other malicious code underpinned the growth in this market, it added.

"The security and vulnerability software market, which includes software that focus on allowing organisations to determine, interpret, and improve their risk posture, also experienced healthy growth in 2005."

It added: "Security management will continue to be a challenge for enterprises. As resource constraints continued to be levied on IT (security) departments, all else being equal, a less complex and hence more manageable security solution is most likely to get the nod. However, the firewall/VPN and intrusion detection and prevention software markets experienced a much smaller growth."

Mr Willie Low, Senior Market Analyst, Asia-Pacific Infrastructure Software Research, IDC Asia-Pacific, said that security features were increasingly being built into the IT infrastructure.