Investment in information security likely to grow 16.4% in 2025: Gartner

End-user spending on information security in India is projected to total $3.3 billion in 2025, an increase of 16.4 per cent from 2024, according to a new forecast from Gartner Inc.

 

Building on the momentum from the previous year, security services is projected to record the highest growth among all segments, with an expected 19 per cent increase in 2025.

 

“Persistent security challenges, such as data sprawl from generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) use, ransomware attacks, evolving regulatory landscapes, and robust cloud adoption, are driving Indian enterprises to increase their information security spending across all segments in 2025,” said Shailendra Upadhyay, senior principal at Gartner. “These urgent challenges necessitate real-time threat detection and incident response across hybrid ecosystems.”

 

“Consequently, chief information security officers (CISOs) in India are prompted to focus on strategic investments in cloud security, access management, and data security and privacy to strengthen their organisation’s security posture and support business resilience.”

 

Gartner predicts that by 2028, 40 per cent of information technology (IT) services contracts will include a security component.

 

“Organisations are increasingly using managed security functions from specialised agencies to increase focus on their own core operations,” said Upadhyay. “The burgeoning demand for security services is further amplified by a shortage of skilled security professionals, making it challenging to secure and retain in-house expertise. Consequently, reliance on external service providers is expected to rise in 2025 and beyond, fuelling the growth of the security services industry.”

 

Security software spending is projected to reach $1.2 billion in 2025, driven by organisations’ efforts to simplify management through platform consolidation and the rising demand for cloud security amid India’s growing digital startup ecosystem that is dependent on cloud.

 

“The integration of generative artificial intelligence models in enterprise applications introduces new data leakage concerns and artificial intelligence application vulnerabilities, prompting greater investment in security software subsegments such as application security, cloud security, data security, privacy, and infrastructure protection, further fuelling the growth of this sector,” said Upadhyay.