A strong cybersecurity infrastructure is critical for businesses to succeed in today’s market and companies are taking notice and investing more than ever before. The analyst firm Canalys just came out with a report estimating cybersecurity technology spending topped $37 billion dollars in 2018. That’s a 9.1 percent increase from 2017.

With the adoption of more and more multicloud and hybrid cloud services, network security saw the biggest growth, and Cisco is leading the pack, according to Canalys. Cisco continued to increase its market share and saw a growth rate of 14.3 percent, becoming the largest cybersecurity vendor by revenue. ““Public cloud workload still holds a small portion of overall market but is the fastest growing deployment area. Leading vendors like Cisco have embraced new deployment models to transition the business into subscription-based offerings. The availability of flexible consumption and pricing models are driving the growth in cloud transactions,” said Canalys Research Analyst, Ketaki Borade.”

See also: Edna Conway at RSA

These numbers mirror the findings of Cisco’s 2019 Benchmark Study, which surveyed 3200 security leaders. CISOs reported feeling more confident that moving to the cloud will help improve their security and reduce the risk of breaches. ninety-three percent of respondents said that moving security to the cloud increased their efficiency and productivity. 

It’s also important to note that more and more CISOs reported consolidating more of their security solutions. Among the findings:

•  In 2019, 79% of respondents said it was somewhat or very challenging to orchestrate alerts from multiple vendor products, which is an increase from 74% in 2018.
• In 2018, 54% of respondents had 10 or fewer vendors in their environment; in 2019 this number has risen to 63%. More respondents with fewer vendors.

Another big trend Canalys is seeing is a push towards acquisitions.  Cisco was part of that trend, acquiring Duo Security last year. Duo, an Ann Arbor based privately-held company, provides multi-factor authentication delivered through the cloud. Simplicity is key for Duo, and its technology verifies the identity of users and the safety of their devices before granting them access to applications. Since the completion of the acquisition in October, Cisco and Duo have worked to integrate Cisco’s network, device and cloud security platforms, allowing customers to easily and security connect users to any application on any device.

See also: Liz Centoni and Matt Watchinski at RSA

We can no doubt expect security to continue to play a huge role in the future success of any business as new threats emerge. “Cisco wants to make sure that our customers are at the forefront of digital business transformation," says Gee Rittenhouse, SVP and GM of Cisco's Security Business Group. "To support them on their journey, we are fundamentally changing security by building an architecture that can securely connect any user to any application on any network. It is what is required in this modern, rapidly changing work environment. Cybersecurity is more crucial than ever, and we expect to see continued market growth.”

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