Gartner has projected that worldwide IT spending would hit the milestone of $3.5 trillion in 2017, marking a 2.7 percent increase from 2016. The research firm suggests a positive move in the IT market globally, but the growth projection is down from previous projections of 3 percent.
Characterising the IT space, Gartner forecasts that enterprise software would continue to lead the global market with 6.8 percent growth in spending in 2017, whereas the worldwide devices spending on PCs, tablets and smartphones is projected to remain flat at $589 billion. Spending on data centre systems would grow 2.6 percent at $175 billion, surpassing the last year’s $170 billion. Furthermore, IT services around the world are projected to reach $938 billion, a 4.2 percent increase from the $899 billion spending in 2016, and worldwide communication services spending would result in a 1.7 percent growth in 2017.
“2017 was poised to be a rebound year in IT spending,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president, Gartner. “Some major trends have converged, including cloud, blockchain, digital business and artificial intelligence.”
The researcher presumes that due to some of the “political uncertainty” across the worldwide markets, enterprises forestall IT investments and thus, the projected growth rate is down from earlier projections of 3 percent.
“The range of spending growth from the high to low is much larger in 2017 than in past years. Normally, the economic environment causes some level of division, however, in 2017 this is compounded by the increased levels of uncertainty,” Lovelock stated.
4.2 percent growth in IT services market
Alongside the growth in spending, major IT services are likely to reach new levels with the growth of 4.2 percent in the worldwide IT services market in 2017.
Gartner predicts buyer investments in the digital business, intelligent automation and services optimisation and innovation would continue to grow in the market. Also, cloud building companies such as Microsoft, Google and Amazon are pushing the global server forecast to a 5.6 percent in 2017.
[…] month, Gartner released a report that projected worldwide IT spending to hit $5.3 trillion in 2017, an increase of 2.7 percent over 2016. That foresight, when compared with the latest […]
[…] were pointing to sustained increases in IT hiring among US companies. Gartner was projecting that IT spending would grow globally during 2017, compared to a decline in spending in 2016. And, US employers were trending towards […]