Enterprise information security spending in India is expected to touch $1.7 billion (around Rs 120 billion) in 2018, up 12.5 per cent from 2017, driven largely by a lack of skilled security professionals in the market, says research firm Gartner. Within this, the security services market is expected to grow faster at 13 per cent to touch $1 billion in 2019 when the overall market will be $1.9 billion. This shortage of skilled resources is also driving enterprises to spend more on security tools and services to cope with the demand.
“Skill shortages continue to persist although India is better placed than a lot of other regions. But due to the high demand for security skills, a lot of end-user organizations are not able to attract skilled resources,” said Siddharth Deshpande, Research Director at Gartner.
Manufacturing and utility, FMCG, retail and e-commerce, logistics and energy companies among others are facing this dearth as they are increasingly seeking skilled resources who in turn opt for better-known technology companies for the greater career scope they provide. Such organizations, in turn, are forced to look for security service providers to consult or outsource their security needs, Deshpande added.
In the coming years, products like integrated risk management software, data security, infrastructure protection and identity, as well as network management will see high demand. These established security product segments benefit from strong growth rates thanks to net new adopters who are looking to rapidly increase their investments in security technology. Additionally, existing buyers of these technologies are looking to acquire more-advanced capabilities in these areas.
Organizations continue to feel the pressure to find the right people with the right skills to grow their security teams, particularly given the 24/7 nature of security operations functions. These ongoing skills shortages are driving demand for security services, particularly security outsourcing, managed security services and security consulting.
Kris Lakshmikant, founder and managing director of HR firm Headhunters notes that over the past 18 months itself, there has been a steep increase in demand for cybersecurity professionals across mid to high-level roles. “The demand is such that even at 3 years of experience people can command salaries of Rs 1.2 to 1.5 million per annum and at it goes up to Rs 900,000 for professionals with 15 years of experience,” he said. This demand is also driven by the prevalence of cloud services, as well as, a greater visibility of cyber attacks and data breaches in recent times, he added.
The investments on security professionals make sense when one considers that the Indian financial sector reported the highest per capita cost of data breaches at Rs 6,210 whereas the least average cost was reported by organizations in the Public Sector at Rs 1,813 in 2017, according to a security report by IBM.
Mayur Saraswat, head of sales and digital at TeamLease says that with the adoption General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe, the demand from companies for data protection and cybersecurity professionals has increased manifold. “Within the next year itself we can expect a 50 per cent jump in demand and this demand will be for skills rather than experience,” he said.