Latin American IT security market to see growth in 2020

March 31, 2020 TH Author

The IT security market is expected to grow 12% in 2020 with spend reaching US$ 4 billion in Latin America, according to analyst firm IDC.

Even though intended spend in security – 57% of the Latin organizations interviewed by IDC indicated this is a priority – is quite different to actual investment, the research company predicts that companies will be directing resources to security initiatives in the months to come despite the challenges.

“Companies are open and are discussing security issues, but when it comes to investing, there are limitations and budgets to be preserved”, said research and consulting manager at Enterprise at IDC Brazil, Luciano Ramos. “Organizations need to expand their perception of security as a business enabler.”

Ramos highlighted a trend around the evolution of trust in Latin America, which defines conditions for companies to decide with whom they will relate. “The future of trust goes beyond the traditional idea of what it is to trust and also involves regulatory issues, specific laws for industries and countries and privacy concepts, something important in Brazil due to the [upcoming data protecting regulations]”, says Ramos.

According to the analyst, such trust programs have metrics intended to establish whether an organization’s maturity level is adequate for a certain project. He added that such metrics, in the medium and long term, will be key to helping organizations decide whether or not to do business with other companies.

Decision-makers in IT security in Latin America are particularly interested in machine learning, cognitive computing and Internet of Things, Ramos noted, as these technologies “play an important role in security solutions to more effectively correlate security events, understand user behaviors, as well as how each person consumes information and resources in each organization.”

Latin American buyers have been using AI and machine learning to solve business problems and better understand the information that is being generated by the business. By doing that, more business results are being achieved and processes are being optimized, the analyst noted.

On the other hand, IDC noted that applications around Internet of Things are not limited to projects outside organizations, like smart cities. According to Ramos, IoT tech generates more inputs, which, in turn, are helping IT analyze and generate insights to optimize resources.

Security is playing a significant role when it comes to achieving good results in cloud strategies in Latin America, according to IDC. When setting up the cloud strategy, benefits expected by Latin organizations when it comes to public cloud are agility (43%), security (42%), simplicity and standardization (41%).

Private cloud priorities stated by the Latin organizations interview by IDC are security (52%), agility (43%), simplicity and standardization (42%). In multi-cloud approaches, the expected benefits are: agility (35%), empowerment of the business areas (35%) and security (34%).

However, IDC noted that one-third of Latin companies can’t see how cloud computing can impact security processes. “Even though the numbers [on security investment] are positive and interesting, caution is needed when it comes to understanding cloud use, because the cloud doesn’t solve security problems automatically”, he noted. “Organizations need strategic security plans and investments in order to deal with such environments of greater exposure,” says Ramos.

IT security vendors in Latin America need to understand how companies are changing the way they consume solutions, according to Ramos. “Both industry and service providers need to rethink their discourse in the market, in line with their customers’ trust strategies”, the analyst said. “[Buyers] need to have having a cybersecurity maturity model in line with their digital transformation plans, which will allow them to better understand how they can be more efficient in managing their budgets.”