Spending on cybersecurity in the first quarter of 2023 grew to $18.6 billion worldwide, a 12.5% increase compared with the same period a year earlier, according to technology market analyst Canalys.
The results, released Monday, June 19, were in line with the firm’s best-case forecasts for the cybersecurity market and outpaced the rest of the tech sector.
An April forecast by management consulting firm Gartner found that worldwide IT spending was projected to grow to $4.6 trillion in 2023, a 5.5% increase from 2022. Despite continued global economic turbulence, spending on information technology was expected to grow in 2023.
“Customers prioritized spending on the most urgent projects and those that delivered the greatest return. Longer sales cycles, delays and downsizing of projects increased, while hardware refresh programs have been pushed to future quarters,” said Matthew Ball, chief analyst at Canalys, in a statement.
Broken down, spending on identity security increased by 14.3% and securing hybrid workers drove investment in security service edge (SSE) within web and email security was up 16%.
Revenue growth for Palo Alto Networks grew 23.6% during the first quarter, extending its lead market share to 8.7%, while Fortinet's increased by 26.2% to reach 7% market share. Cisco’s market share shrunk to 6.1% from 6.8% in Q1 2022, but increased revenue by 1.4% in the same period.
The top 12 cybersecurity vendors made up nearly half (48.6%) of total customer spending during the quarter, with the fastest growth — 13.3% from companies with 500-plus employees and 13.5% from companies with 100 to 499 employees. Small- to micro-companies, 10 to 99 employees and one to nine employees, respectively, also grew, but at a smaller pace (7.5% and 4.3%, respectively).
Palo Alto Networks was the No. 1 vendor for large- and medium-sized companies.
“Results from the largest cybersecurity vendors showed enhancing cyber-resiliency remained a priority for most organizations, despite ongoing macroeconomic challenges and greater IT budget scrutiny,” said Ball.
