Spending on IT security and risk management tech in Thailand is expected to surge 7.7% year-on-year to 13.7 billion baht in 2021, buoyed by the growth of remote work, cloud computing, and risk management, according to global research firm Gartner.
Thailand's projected rise in spending falls short of the global projected growth of 12.4%.
In Thailand, cloud security is expected to see strong year-on-year growth of 256% with 198 million baht in spending in 2021. Last year, spending in this segment surged 141% to 56 million baht.
The second strongest growth will occur in integrated risk management (IRM), which is projected to rise 28% year-on-year to 456 million baht this year while the outlay for infrastructure protection is expected to surge 16.8% to 1.8 billion baht.
Meanwhile, security services are expected to see the biggest spending this year at 5.5 billion baht, trailed by network security equipment at 2.1 billion baht, infrastructure protection at 1.8 billion baht and identity access management at 1.1 billion baht.
On the global stage, spending is expected to reach US$150 billion this year compared to $134 billion in 2020.
Gartner analysts said the strong growth rate reflects continuing demand for remote work technologies and cloud security.
"Organisations continue to grapple with security and regulatory demands of the public cloud and software as a service," said Lawrence Pingree, managing research vice-president at Gartner.
"Looking ahead, we're seeing early market signals of growing automation and further adoption of machine learning technologies in support of AI security. To combat attacks, organisations will extend and standardise threat detection and response activities."
According to the Gartner 2021 CIO Agenda Survey, cybersecurity is the first priority for new spending.
Some 61% of more than 2,000 chief information officers surveyed said they would increase investment in cyber and information security this year.
Security services, which includes consulting, hardware support, implementation and outsourced services, are expected to represent the largest category of spending in 2021 at almost $72.5 billion worldwide.
The smallest but fastest-growing market segment is cloud security, particularly cloud access security brokers (CASB), with 41.2% year-on-year growth projected or $841 million in total.
"The pace of client inquiries indicates that CASB is a popular choice for organisations that use cloud," Mr Pingree said. "This is due to the growing popularity of non-PC devices for interacting with core business processes which creates security risks that can be mitigated effectively with a CASB."
Spending on IRM technology is also projected to see robust 12.6% growth to $5.4 billion resulting from risks highlighted during the global pandemic.
"Areas of significant risk which will drive near-term demand include the advent of new digital products and services and related health and safety uses as well as third-party risks such as customer data breaches or supply chain attacks," said John Wheeler, senior research director at Gartner.
