The explosive growth of the IoT security market

The IoT security market is estimated to grow from USD 7.90 billion in 2016 to USD 36.95 billion by 2021, at a CAGR of 36.1%, according to MarketsandMarkets.

The major forces driving the IoT security market are rise in security concerns for critical infrastructures such as utilities, smart grids, and manufacturing facilities and stringent regulations and compliance requirements. Nowadays, cloud-based security solutions are providing good opportunities for the growth of the IoT security market by minimizing implementation and maintenance costs, thereby leading organizations to shift towards the deployment of cloud-based security solutions.

IAM solution is expected to be the most promising solution segment during the forecast period

Identity Access Management (IAM) solutions provide a security structure and allow the management of user identity and related access permissions in an automated fashion and hence is expected to hold the largest share of the IoT security solutions market. The solution includes components such as provisioning, directory technologies, password management, single sign on, advanced authentication, and audit. Risk over maintenance of sensitive data, increased spending pattern over security solutions, and enhanced enterprise mobility are the drivers for the growth of IAM.

“We should definitely expect to see IoT security spending grow significantly over the next few years. This is especially true in sensitive areas like infrastructure, where more and more ‘smart’ devices will improve management but may introduce new vulnerabilities with respect to malicious, intentional attack. I am not surprised to see Identity and Access Management as a primary focus area – understanding and managing the interaction between the people who use smart devices and the devices themselves really requires a solid foundation of identity management,” Geoff Webb, VP, Solution Strategy at Micro Focus, told Help Net Security.

“I also expect to see spending around privacy lag behind IoT “resilience” spending, and that seems to be the case here. However, at some point in the next three to five years, regulations, especially driven out of the EU, will start to force more spending on keeping data private in addition to keeping the physical systems secure,” Webb added.

Cloud security is expected to grow at the most promising rate

Cloud security addresses security across the different service models of software, platform, and infrastructure. The cloud services are on demand for sensitive data storage. Furthermore, the popularity of cloud-based software delivery and extensive use of cloud in IAM, encryption, and managed security services are also driving this market towards innovation. Application security is expected to grow at the next best CAGR during the forecast period.

APAC to witness the highest growth rate in the IoT security market

During the last decade, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has undergone tremendous economic growth, political transformation, and social change. Owing to the sophistication of threats, countries such as India, Japan, and Singapore have all updated or launched new national security policies. Factors such as continual growth in mobile workforce, increasing complexity of businesses, unregulated nature of Internet, and growth in the adoption of BYOD, which in turn comes up with strong security requirements, are now expected to push large as well as SMBs to adopt various security solutions.