Advertisment

Indian SMB''s to spend $161m on data security

author-image
CIOL Bureau
Updated On
New Update

KOLKATA: Small and medium businesses in India (with up to 999 employees) are on track to spend over $161 million on beefing up their IT security solutions this year, up a whopping 41 percent over last year. Though spending on stand-alone anti-virus solutions still dominates the SMB security pie, secure content management software solutions will account for a larger chunk of SMB expenditures, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International Partners, Inc.

Advertisment

"Indian SMBs are interested in reducing the number of different security products and brands they use. This has led to the popularity of integrated security suites which bundle multiple products such as anti-virus, anti-spam, e-mail protection, firewall, and others in one packaged offering," said Neha Jalan, Analyst, AMI-Partners.

India's explosive growth is being driven by its burgeoning SMB sector, which experienced revenue increases and double-digit growth. Greater employee mobility, increased competition and expansion in terms of office locations have pushed Indian SMBs to embrace IT and the Internet. With the advent of broadband at competitive prices, the threat of viruses and spam has escalated.

According to AMI-Partners' latest survey, almost 50 percent of India's MBs (100-999 staff) and 36 percent of SBs (1-99 staff) have experienced malware attacks and hard drive failures over the past 12 months, emphasizing the need for better security protection

Advertisment

According to AMI-Partners' latest survey, almost 50 percent of India's MBs (100-999 staff) and 36 percent of SBs (1-99 staff) have experienced malware attacks and hard drive failures over the past 12 months, emphasizing the need for better security protection. "Electronic attacks are considered to be the single largest threat to data security and protection from viruses, worms and hackers remains the primary reason behind SMB investments in IT security," Jalan added.

Indian MBs also face regulatory compliance issues, which increasingly influence their IT spending. In a recent AMI survey, over half of India's MBs listed regulatory compliance as an important factor driving IT security deployment, while just under a fourth of PC-owning SBs credited their investments to regulatory pressures. Moreover, Indian MBs are increasingly competing and partnering with large businesses-and this is influencing their IT infrastructure as well. 52 percent mentioned that large customers and suppliers had influenced investments in security solutions.

"Increasing awareness of the loss in productivity and the damage that online viruses can inflict has resulted in data security becoming a focal point for Indian SMBs. However, though SMBs are now more open to considering investments in security solutions, their limited in-house IT skills and resources pose a major barrier in their deploying and managing a sophisticated security infrastructure. The shortage of qualified personnel within SMBs is a third factor. Added to this is the fact that security is dynamic-knowledge and software that currently seems adequate soon becomes obsolete," Jalan explained.

Advertisment

SMBs need products that are easy to adopt and maintain. Until now, Indian SMBs have been focused on deploying basic stand-alone security solutions. "As businesses progress towards deploying firewalls, VPNs and IDS, managed security services will offer the twin benefits of convenience and cost-effectiveness," Jalan added.

While some SMBs, especially those in the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector remain cautious about outsourcing their security management to external experts due to the confidential nature of their client information, most embrace the opportunity to avail of expert knowledge at reduced costs. Managed security is anticipated to be one the fastest growing security investment areas among Indian SMBs. Vendors who can provide secure, reliable and scalable services will find the Indian SMB segment to be a highly receptive market.

DQ Week

tech-news