The emphasis on being prepared for a terrorist attack has resulted in security spending plans being given a higher priority. However, Forrester believes this is causing a shortage of specialist skills in the market and will drive more companies to choose an outsourced managed-security service.

Forrester expects that within five years, managed firewalls will make up 36 percent of the managed security market and account for 1.7bn euros in revenue. Managed intrusion-detection systems are predicted to grow at almost 50 percent a year, accounting for 32 percent of the market and generating 1.5 billion euros ($2 billion) in revenues by 2008. In the same time frame, the use of digital signatures is predicted to grow by more than 50 percent a year, resulting in a 1.1 billion euro ($1.3 billion) market.

Companies will be forced to outsource in order to cope with an increasingly volatile security environment, according to Forrester senior analyst Lars Godell. "Most large firms already have a firewall, but the lack of internal skills, high cost of internal management, and a more mature managed-service market will drive conversion to managed firewall services," he said in a statement.

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