MENA end-user security and risk management spending to grow 11.2% in 2022: Gartner

End-user spending on security and risk management in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is forecast to total $2.6bn in 2022, an increase of 11.2 per cent from 2021, according to Gartner.

“Cyberattacks have become more sophisticated over the last two years, and the MENA region is not immune,” said Shailendra Upadhyay, principal research analyst at Gartner. “The malicious nature of the attacks has forced security leaders in the region to relook at their security strategy and increase their security and risk management spending to make their businesses future-ready.”

In 2022, end-user spending is forecast to increase in all segments of information security and risk management. Cloud security is forecast to record the highest growth at 33.8 per cent, followed by data security, growing 21.9 per cent. The region’s strategic focus on public cloud growth, intended to smoothen its shift to a ‘data-driven economy’ from an ‘oil exporting economy’ will contribute to the fast growth of these segments.

“The identity and access management (IAM) market will continue to grow in the long term as organisations become more aware of the criticality of identity controls within their larger security architecture. Growth in cloud computing has shifted security from perimeter-based approaches to identity context-based approaches. This, and other longer-term growth drivers, such as identity being foundational to digital business transformation and optimization initiatives and compliance and regulatory pressures, should continue to propel demand for IAM solutions,” said Upadhyay.

Covid-19 accelerated digital transformation and SaaS adoption, which are the primary growth drivers for the cloud access security broker (CASB) market. As organisations look to support remote workers and continue to adopt and expand SaaS usage, CASB will be one of the key products addressing the need. The CASB market will continue to grow through 2023, and the convergence toward secure access service edge (SASE) will capture some of the growth starting around 2024 onward.

Meanwhile last year, Gartner forecasted IT spending in the MENA region to total $1.7bn in 2022, an increase of 2.6 per cent from 2021.

Read: IT spending in Middle East and North Africa to grow by 2.6% in 2022: Gartner

“The recovery of the IT sector in MENA will continue in 2022,” says Miriam Burt, managing vice president at Gartner. “In 2022, digital transformation projects will advance moderately from 2021. Underpinned by the GCC Country Visions, the rapid shift of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from an oil-exporting economy to a knowledge-based economy will be a major influence.”