Think President George W. Bush is spending a lot with his $31 billion commitment to secure our nation in fiscal 2004? Then take a look at the arm and a leg that businesses are spending to protect their companies.
According to market researcher Meta Group, two-thirds of businesses made room in their 2003 IT budgets to dedicate more financial resources to security initiatives. While they earmarked for little else, business executives hiked IT spending 8 percent over 2002, according to a Meta Group survey of approximately 300 business executives. That was on top of a whopping 137.5 percent increase over the year before.
As it stands, businesses spend 8.2 percent of their IT budgets on security, up from 3.2 percent in 2001 (see chart). That's important because each percentage-point gain is worth roughly $3.8 billion.
Research from another industry organization suggests the increase isn't likely to go away anytime soon. According to TEC, a San Diego-based international organization that represents more than 9,000 SMB CEOs, more CEOs see terrorism as the No. 1 threat to the nation's economy than any other phenomenon. No wonder a vast majority of the solution providers polled by VARBusiness (79 percent) report they have taken part in security deployments during the past 12 months.
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