Security spending remains robust in face of downturn

Firms find budget for security

Firms are continuing to invest heavily in security despite the economic slump, according to figures released today from analyst IDC.

Spending on security appliances, including firewall, virtual private network and unified threat management appliances, rose to £265.6m – a 10 per cent increase on the same quarter a year ago.

"Despite a very challenging time for all technologies, the security appliance market is still showing healthy growth over last year," said Romain Fouchereau, research analyst at IDC.

"However, while there was a decline in general IT spending, organisations in Western Europe will continue to face major security threats and increased compliance regulations. They cannot afford not to protect their data, information systems, and intellectual property," he added.

Much of that increase in spending came from firms buying unified threat management appliances, where sales were up 18 per cent year on year, from £69.2m in the fourth quarter of 2007 to £89.9m in 2008.

Spending on intrusion detection systems also rose sharply – up 23 per cent year on year to £60.4m. Firewall sales were also up slightly.