Companies are massively increasing their security budgets to meet a variety of challenges. AI and Zero Trust are considered the trends to follow, in that order.

The IT landscape is becoming increasingly complex and security is no exception. In order to arm themselves against the challenges and threats of today and tomorrow, companies are significantly increasing their budgets. This comes from a survey by SiliconAngle. Although the survey focuses primarily on large American companies (more than 300 companies were surveyed), many of the trends mentioned may also sound recognizable to your company.

An overwhelming majority of companies surveyed (87 percent) say they will increase their IT security budgets in the next twelve months. Only four percent expect the budget to be cut, while nine percent expect it to remain unchanged. In addition, seventy percent implement an increase of more than five percent. Fourteen percent even show “hypergrowth” of more than fifteen percent.

When asked what the most important priorities are, the answers are much broader. Identity management, vulnerability patching and EDR/XDR are the most commonly mentioned briefly. Observability, email, network, cloud and application security should not be neglected either.

First AI, then Zero Trust

The survey also asks what IT experts believe are the most important trends in the security market. Unsurprisingly, AI is the trend to follow. But only 22 percent of the companies surveyed appear to be working effectively on this at the moment. AI is considered an investment priority for the near future: 61 percent want to invest in the next six to twelve months. 17 percent have no interest in entrusting IT security to AI.

In particular, the second trend to be followed, Zero Trust, is seen as a path for the future. Only 11 percent of participants say they have fully implemented a zero trust model in the organization. 66 percent have just started or are still in the planning phase.