Dive Brief:

• The number of businesses moving to the cloud over the last few years has simultaneously introduced new security risks, according to Forrester.

• Many traditional security tools do not adequately protect cloud workloads, so as more companies migrate to the cloud, cloud security solutions are growing. According to Forrester, cloud security solutions are expected to grow 28% annually over the next five years, reaching $3.5 billion by 2021.

• Overall, Forrester estimates global cloud services have grown 30% annually over the last two years and is on pace to reach $236 billion by 2020.

Dive Insight:

Because cloud security is a different animal than traditional IT security, it warrants new solutions. As a result, the industry has seen a large number of startups and consolidations over the last few years. This has increased pressure on the legacy companies.

A Technology Business Research (TBR) report released in February demonstrated how big demand for cloud security is causing a shift in the IT security landscape overall. TBR found large established security vendors — including Symantec, Cisco, IBM, Check Point and Intel — are now having a tougher time competing against emerging vendors like Palo Alto Networks, Fortinet, Trend Micro, FireEye and Forcepoint.

The result of increased competition should be more innovation and greater options for customers.