'Endpoint' business security market to generate over $16bn by 2014, says research

The market for protecting business laptops, desktops and mobile devices with anti virus, encryption and firewall software will reach $16.4bn by 2014 according to a new security report by Juniper Research. By that date network-based security provision to the business "endpoint" will account for close to 20% of the market, says Juniper.

Despite the ongoing move towards so-called "endpoint solutions", where IT security staff can manage the security on a company's desktops and other devices remotely through the network, demand for business IT security products will be driven by the need for encryption products, as devices become both more mobile and more likely to carry sensitive company information.

"From desktop to the mobile device, the encryption function will play an increasingly important role as both governments and businesses realize the vulnerability of data on corporate machines and the importance of data protection," says Juniper analyst Anthony Cox.

Data protection legislation covering personal information on company phones and other office hardware will lend further support to the encryption market, particularly in the US, Europe and Japan. Indeed, though Endpoint and Unified Threat Management (UTM) options have been successfully sold to the market it is still difficult to provide all the elements of a business security solution in one package, particularly if mobile devices are to be protected as well.

Other findings from the report:

* Overall business security market (excluding mobile) will be worth $15.7bn by 2014
* Encryption is set to increase at a rate of 26% to $4.3bn in 2014, largely on the back of legislation governing data protection.

The report looks at how the mobile and desktop business IT security market will develop and in which directions. The report forecasts both the number of corporate users protected as well as revenues for six areas of security: Basic antivirus and firewall security; Encryption and advanced authorisation functions; Advanced firewalls, Intrusion detection and prevention, Virtual private networks (VPN); Security policy management, endpoint security updates and provision; Security of corporate mobile devices.