More than 60 percent of security applications will be based in the public cloud by the end of 2017

Growth in worldwide Cloud-based security services will reach $5.9 billion in 2017, up 21 percent from 2016, market research firm Gartner said on Thursday. The Cloud-based security services market will reach close to $9 billion by 2020."Email security, web security and identity and access management (IAM) remain organisations' top-three Cloud priorities," said Ruggero Contu, Research Director at Gartner, in a statement. Small and midsize businesses (SMBs) are driving growth as they are becoming increasingly aware of security threats."The Cloud medium is a natural fit for the needs of SMBs. Its ease of deployment and management, pay-as-you-consume pricing and simplified features make this delivery model attractive for organisations that lack staffing resources," Contu added.The enterprise sector is also driving growth as it realises the operational benefits derived from a Cloud-based security delivery model."Cloud-based delivery models will remain a popular choice for security practices, with deployment expanding further to controls, such as Cloud-based sandboxing and WAFs," said Contu.According to Gartner, public Cloud will be the prime delivery model for more than 60 per cent of security applications by the end of 2017. "The ability to leverage security controls that are delivered, updated and managed through Cloud and therefore require less time-consuming and costly implementations and maintenance activities is of significant value to enterprises," added Contu.