IT security Europe spending remains robust despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and is expected grow 8.3% year on year in 2021, according to International Data Corporation (IDC).

IDC’s new Worldwide Security Spending Guide indicates that European IT security spending will rise to a total value of $37.2 billion in 2021. It is forecast to have a five-year (2020–2025) compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.2%, surpassing $50 billion in value in 2025.

IT security software will have the strongest year-on-year growth of any category, according to the guide. However, IT security services will remain the biggest spending category.

Spending growth is expected to intensify through 2025. IDC’s recent European Industry Acceleration survey found that European organizations continue to regard cybersecurity as their top priority.

According to the survey, more Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) respondents rank cybersecurity as the top priority than Western Europe (WE) respondents — 26% versus 22.5%, respectively.

“We can expect increased IT security spending by organizations in Central and Eastern Europe, particularly in the public sector and telecommunications, as they work to close the gap with their peers in Western Europe,” says Senior Analyst Vladimir Zivadinovic, IDC European Customer Insights & Analysis.

With expenditures of more than $7 billion, manufacturing is projected to have the highest level of IT security spending of any sector in 2021. As manufacturing becomes more automated, organizations are increasingly targeted by malicious actors, raising the risk of data loss, and damage to physical assets.

The banking and government sectors are projected to be the second and third top spenders on IT security in 2021, each with expenditures of around $5 billion. Both sectors are increasingly digitalizing to adapt to the COVID-19 “new normal.” As industries that work with high volumes of sensitive data, having effective IT safeguards is a priority.

The government sector is expected to lead in terms of growth in IT security spending in 2021, followed by telecommunications & media and transportation. Each of these sectors is expected to boost spending by more than 9% year on year.

Source: IDC Worldwide Security Spending Guide — Forecast 2021, July (V2 2021)

The Worldwide Security Spending Guide quantifies the global revenue opportunity for both core and next-generation security purchases with detailed forecast data for security spending by 20 industries across nine regions and 43 countries. This version (V2 2021) of the Spending Guide incorporates updated estimates for the impact of COVID-19 across all technology markets as of end of July 2021. It also offers expanded coverage of security IT services with the addition of 13 technology detail markets, providing greater granularity to the four technology markets previously provided, plus the addition of a fifth technology market.

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