Gartner, the world’s leading research and advisory company projects that global IT spending will reach a whopping $3.8 trillion in 2019, an increase of 3.2% as compared to 2018.
According to Gartner’s predictions, the spending on software by enterprises is forecast to experience the highest growth rate of 8.3%. As SaaS products are driving growth, more and more companies will be investing in such technology, particularly CRM software. Cloud software is also predicted to grow by more than 22% this year, as compared to a 6% growth for other forms of software. The report also says that security and privacy are garnering more interest now, with 88% of recently surveyed global CIOs either have deployed or plan to deploy cybersecurity software and other technology in the next 12 months.
The report, however, also predicts that this year the servers will shift back to a declining market and drop at a rate of 1% to 3% per year for the next five years. This will also impact overall data center systems spending, as growth is predicted to slow down to 1.6%.
IT services, on the other hand, will be key components of IT spending this year, as the market is forecast to reach $1 trillion in 2019, an increase of 4.7% from 2018. In the study, 46% of organizations surveyed indicated that IT services and supplier consolidation were in their top three most effective cost optimization approaches.
Worldwide spending on devices such as PCs, tablets and mobile phones is also forecast to grow by 2.4% this year, reaching $706 billion.
“While currency volatility and the potential for trade wars are still playing a part in the outlook for IT spending, it is the shift from ownership to service that is sending ripples through every segment of the forecast,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “What this signals, for example, is more enterprise use of cloud services — instead of buying their own servers, they are turning to the cloud. As enterprises continue their digital transformation efforts, shifting to ‘pay for use’ will continue. This sets enterprises up to deal with the sustained and rapid change that underscores digital business.”
