74% of Large Indian Enterprises Increase Security Spending Priorities in 2022

According to a recent report, International Data Corporation (IDC) reveals that 74 percent of large enterprises in India embed IT security in the planning, initiation, and assessments of all new business initiatives.

The security market in India, including hardware, software, and services, is projected to be valued at $2.51 billion in 2022, with the highest market share coming from services, followed by software and hardware, respectively, according to IDC’s Worldwide Security Spending Guide, July 2022. India’s overall security market is expected to reach $4.16 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 13.8 percent during 2021-26.

Security investments have been witnessed across all enterprises at the onset of new developments, irrespective of the size classification. According to IDC’s report, Security Priorities, Challenges, and Investment Areas for Enterprises in India, most of the interviewed enterprises stated that post-pandemic they intend to invest across all security areas, especially with the increasing demand for hybrid-working models. An upsurge in security investments during the project onset has been observed across industries, especially in the manufacturing, retail & wholesale, and healthcare sectors.

These investments are targeted toward security solutions such as data security, workload security, threat management, endpoint security, and security analytics, followed by identity and access management. Having a comprehensive security portfolio amalgamated with an enterprise’s both operational technology (OT) and information technology (IT) architecture will not only prevent them from external threats but also helps them be aware of insider threat movements.

Sakshi Grover, Research Manager, Future of Trust and Future of Work, IDC India, said, “Data and network security are two key driving factors when dealing with massive digital assets, inventories, and transactional traffic flows. But, investing in cyber resilience and threat intelligence solutions along with incidental and log management products, will not only help organizations gain objective insights into their security architecture and data breaches when they occur but also prepare them to effectively mitigate the situation with minimal downtime.”

“The major challenge enterprises are facing these days when it comes to IT security is managing multiple dashboards and spending more time on generating the insights, rather than real investigations. Consolidation and a single source of truth is the new way forward. At the initiation of the pandemic and in a rush to embrace the digital-first ecosystem, enterprises focused more on the deployment of pointed solutions, leading to immediate ROIs. It’s now that everyone is struggling with the multi-integration of solutions and vendor management hassles. Enterprise now must think about progressing towards a unified security suite of solutions within their security architecture that can protect their web, email, network, and endpoints on top of which they can build threat intelligence, incidental log management, and user entity and behavior solutions,” adds Grover.

The report also finds that in the BFSI vertical more than 77 percent of enterprises have already invested in cyber resilience solutions, identity security, and data security while manufacturing vertical the focus lies more on data and network security solutions. Threat Intelligence was a key area where BFSI, manufacturing, healthcare, and professional services wanted to invest followed by internet defense. As enterprises are planning to move ahead to cloud-centric architectures and gain an edge in the digital transformation ecosystem, building a strong and airtight internet defense mechanism is vital, especially when high volumes of personal credentials are involved. Additionally, while modernizing and automating legacy IT systems, businesses need to embed and look at integrating security at the foundation of the IT and application architecture.