Global spending on cloud security for corporations could double within four years as companies look to protect data and end user customers. Analysis by Intricately, using a worldwide sensor network that monitors cloud traffic, indicates no slowdown in the 14 percent annual expansion of cloud security – especially Web Application Firewall (WAF) deployments. Spending for 2021 was estimated at $30 billion according to Intricately’s 2021 State of Cloud Security Market, which revealed increasing cloud usage but few secured cloud applications.
North America represents the largest geographic market of cloud security buyers, Intricately finds, with about 40 percent of spending worldwide, totaling approximately 60,000 security buyers. EMEA is the second-largest, with more than 45,000 buyers. Overall, the industry’s contract renewals and new sales opportunities reflect hundreds of millions of dollars in spending each year.
Many leading cloud security providers are serving large enterprise clients, opening down-market entry points for smaller, more nimble players. Intricately identifies a universe of nearly 25,000 customers that spend less than $10,000 monthly on cloud security – specifically cloud firewalls – to ensure that only authorized users can access data and applications.
Wallet share of selected leading DDoS and WAF providers (estimated percent of industry dollar). Download the report for our full analysis.
The report, leveraging data from September 2021, reveals that companies spending $10,000-$100,000 per month on cloud security services make up a market of about 16,000 buyers. This represents a robust sales opportunity as daily business increasingly shifts to “digital first” and remote operations. This group is growing both in the total number of companies and the global footprint they support.
Application Protection and Cloud Security Reflect the Risks of Rapid Growth
The 2021 State of Cloud Security Market is a directional report based on observations of cloud traffic by Intricately sensors. These sensors track 7 million companies globally using more than 150 sensors that monitor cloud usage. The report is based primarily on cloud security for Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) and Web Application Firewall (WAF) deployments, which are largely unable to keep pace with cloud computing expansion.
The growth of protected vs. unprotected applications; cumulative total of each application class over time (2016–2020). Download the report for our full analysis.
The report’s 2021 data found more than 90 percent of cloud applications are unprotected – this includes 93 percent of total apps worldwide, compared with a 2016 estimate of 84 percent. Denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and other hacks are forcing companies to protect their environments around the clock. End user customers may not understand the ways their data is at risk when using apps, even if they believe their home networks and personal devices are well secured.
Global companies escalated their pandemic response by installing more cloud applications. Gartner predicts that public cloud deployments will outnumber private data center workloads by the end of the year. This expansion and diversification creates a need to catch up with better cloud security for the web, cloud services and cloud-native applications.
“Cloud-first strategies are now common, even among risk-averse organizations,” says Tom Croll, Gartner’s Senior Director Analyst. “However, execution remains impeded by a lack of necessary skills and tools to ensure secure cloud computing deployments.”
Ransomware, Hacking Threats Rise Along with Cloud Computing
Cloud security vendor SonicWall projects a 134% year-over-year increase in ransomware by the end of 2021, with a total of more than 700 million attacks. Malware, crypto-theft and intrusions remain major worries for IT security across government agencies, companies and individuals, in what the company is calling the worst year ever for cyber-crime.
A U.S. government estimate stated that in 2020, victims around the world paid a combined $400 million in response to ransomware attacks and data or account thefts – and that number topped $81 million in just the first quarter of 2021. The number of attacks and amounts of data being taken hostage is only increasing, thanks to a rapidly evolving “Ransomware-as-a-Service” marketplace or freelance hackers seeking to capitalize on money flows from victims, often paid via cryptocurrency.
Smaller companies and local government IT prime targets for hackers who find less-secure infrastructure combined with critical need for data and access. The issue has become a national security and economic concern for dozens of countries, which led to a discussion of strategies for defense following hacks of crucial fuel pipelines, oil refineries and hospitals.
New approaches to resilient global cloud security include “zero trust” options that make no assumptions about a user, location, device or password. Any identification that could be compromised represents a possible entry point for hackers. So, organizations of all sizes are encouraged to take a broader, more holistic view of security and examine potential weak spots.
Grow Revenue in the 2022 Cloud Security Market
Is your go-to-market team driving revenue in this high-growth market? Find the most value with these cloud adoption, usage and spend insights from Intricately’s 2021 State of Cloud Security Market.
Other market reports from Intricately regularly examine the cloud infrastructure landscape; from multi-cloud adoption and regional trends, to vertical markets and cloud sustainability.
These reports are available for free at https://www.intricately.com/resources/reports.
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Intricately has a worldwide network of sensors to analyze the cloud product adoption, usage, and spend of over 7 million global businesses. Our data is updated every 24-48 hours on companies and providers, monitoring thousands of services. Since 2013, the Intricately Global Sensor Network has been at work charting the trends and patterns of internet gateway traffic. That data helps Intricately users to know more, and with greater depth, about cloud sales and marketing of customers and prospects.
