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Analyst powerhouse Gartner has predicted that global spending on IoT security will reach $348 million this year, up almost 24 percent from the $281 million spent last year. Furthermore, the firm believes spend will reach $434 million in 2017 and $547 million in 2018. 

This momentum is set to continue, and market spending will increase even further after 2020 as improved skills, organisational change, and more scalable service options improve execution. "The market for IoT security products is currently small but it is growing as both consumers and businesses start using connected devices in ever greater numbers," said Ruggero Contu, research director at Gartner. 

"Gartner forecasts that 6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30 percent from 2015, and will reach 11.4 billion by 2018. However, considerable variation exists among different industry sectors as a result of different levels of prioritization and security awareness," he continues. 

Table 1 
Worldwide IoT Security Spending Forecast (Millions of Dollars) 

Source: Gartner (April 2016) 

Consumer and industry adoption will affect the demand for IoT security products. The most endpoint spending is expected to be to be dominated by connected vehicles including aircraft, cars, and trucks. A large amount of connected devices heralds an increased security risk, and Gartner is predicting that more than 25 percent of attacks in the enterprise will be IoT related. 

"The effort of securing IoT is expected to focus more and more on the management, analytics and provisioning of devices and their data. IoT business scenarios will require a delivery mechanism that can also grow and keep pace with requirements in monitoring, detection, access control and other security needs," said Mr. Contu. 

"The future of cloud-based security services is in part linked with the future of the IoT. In fact, the IoT's fundamental strength in scale and presence will not be fully realized without cloud-based security services to deliver an acceptable level of operation for many organizations in a cost-effective manner. By 2020, Gartner predicts that over half of all IoT implementations will use some form of cloud-based security service," he continues. 

IoT's demand is set to increase dramatically over the coming years, and it's clear from Gartner's forecast that spending on security will grow alongside it. You can the full detailed analysis in the report "Forecast: IoT Security, Worldwide, 2016." 

Are you surprised at Gartner's IoT spending forecast? Let us know in the comments. 

Interested in hearing industry leaders discuss subjects like this and sharing their IoT use-cases? Attend the IoT Tech Expo World Series events with upcoming shows in Silicon Valley, London and Amsterdam to learn more.

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