Global IT spend to rise 3.2 per cent in 2014

Global IT spend to rise 3.2 per cent in 2014

Worldwide IT spending is set total $3.8 trillion (£2.3 trillion) in 2014, an increase of 3.2 per cent from 2013, according to Gartner’s latest forecast.

The analyst house stated that as global economies show signs of recovery, there has been a surge in both consumer and business spending on IT. The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast noted that consumers are now purchasing many more new devices – with predicted growth in this space of 4.4 per cent from last year – although they are tending to favour buying lower cost devices.

For businesses, the enterprise software market, driven by the rise of cloud and big data solutions, is the fastest growing segment for 2014. According to the research, spending is on pace to reach a total of $320 billion this year, a 6.9 per cent increase from the previous 12 months.

Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner, explained the reasons behind this: “The Nexus of Forces (the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and information) continues to drive growth across key major software markets, such as customer relationship management, database management systems, data integration tools and data quality tools.”

IT services, meanwhile, is predicted to grow by 4.6 per cent to a total of $964 billion in 2014. Here, Gartner states, there is a notable shift from companies previously spending money on consultancy and planning to instead now to pay for the actual implementation of projects.

Another market set to grow is data centre system sales; this year they are set to achieve $143 billion, a 2.3 percent rise from 2013. The growth, compared to a decline in 2013 from the year before, is again being driven by interest in cloud computing, as well as virtualisation and wireless LAN technology to support mobile devices.

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