IDC Expects APAC Security Market to Hit US$1.7B by 2010

According to results from IDC’s Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) Semiannual Security Software Tracker, the security software market in Asia Pacific totaled US$805 million in 2005, which represents a growth of more than 23 percent year over year.

Continued growth is expected in the security software market in the next five years, with India, PRC and Malaysia leading the growth, said IDC. However, Australia is expected to remain the largest market in the region in 2010.

IDC forecasts the Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) security software market to rise to US$1.7 billion by 2010, representing a CAGR of more than 15 percent.

According to the report, the secure content management market in 2005 achieved a growth of 34 percent over the previous year. It retains the majority share of the security software market in Asia Pacific, accounting for more than 57 percent of the market.

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

However, IDC notes that the firewall/VPN and intrusion detection and prevention software markets experienced a much smaller growth.

Security features are increasingly being built into the IT infrastructure, including operating systems and networking equipment. The firewall/VPN and the intrusion detection/prevention software markets are especially hard-hit by this trend. At the same time, these markets are being cannibalized by appliance solutions, said Willie Low, senior market analyst with Asia Pacific Infrastructure Software Research, IDC Asia Pacific.

“As a result, software vendors in these markets should look at how they can take advantage of this trend or re-evaluate their value proposition and align themselves accordingly,” he said.

IDC is owned by International Data Group, which also owns IDG News Service.

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By Connie Chng, Computerworld Singapore