Irish businesses will spend close to €100m on IT security this year, approximately an 8pc increase on 2005.
According to data from iReach, Irish companies are forecast to outlay €97m on security. This figure comprises €79m on general security management, covering products such as firewalls and intrusion detection systems. A further €18m will be spent on antivirus tools.
Irish organisations are forecast to spend €2.35bn on IT in 2006. Based on that total, security represents around 4pc of total technology spending, said iReach analyst Ed O’Malley. He added that growth in security spending would likely continue into 2007.
As more businesses, especially small firms, adopt broadband their exposure to security risks increases accordingly but O’Malley said the dilemma for many organisations was how to address the issue sufficiently. “A lot of the smaller companies don’t have the budget to allocate towards security but they should prioritise it a lot more, whether that means spending more or simply being more vigilant,” he told siliconrepublic.com.
To arrive at its findings iReach surveyed 250 IT decision makers across Irish organisations of all sizes in major sectors including financial services, government, retail, manufacturing, telecoms and media.
By Gordon Smith
