Gartner: 2018 global IT spend set to top $3.7tn

Companies have a lot more to spend on IT this year than last, according to the latest by research firm Gartner.

The company’s findings suggests that global IT expenditure will top US$3.7-trillion in 2018, up by 4.5% over 2017.

This is largely thanks to a shift in spending patterns.

“Projects in digital business, blockchain, Internet of Things, and progression from big data to algorithms to machine learning to artificial intelligence (AI) will continue to be main drivers of growth,” explained John-David Lovelock, Gartner’s research VP.

Enterprise software will continue to see the largest increase over the previous year, with a forecast spend 9.5% higher in 2018 than 2017. This amounts to US$389-billion in total.

“Organisations are expected to increase spending on enterprise application software in 2018, with more of the budget shifting to software as a service,” said Gartner.

Communications services will be the biggest cash dropper, with companies set to spend US$1.42-trillion in the coming year. This a growth of 2.4% over the previous year.

Global IT expenditure will top US$3.7-trillion in 2018, up by 4.5% over 2017

Devices is another promising sector. Growth of 5.6% is expected, this only slightly lower than 2017’s increase.

Driving this particular sector are mobile phones, while PC shipments reportedly remain uninspiring.

“The impact of the iPhone 8 and iPhone X was minimal in 2017, as expected. However, iOS shipments are expected to grow 9.1% in 2018,” added Gartner.

Notably, data centre systems is set to take a hit this year, growing a measly 0.6% over 2017. In 2019, Gartner expects this sector’s expenditure to shrink by 0.2%.

Overall forecasts for 2019 suggest a slowdown of sorts, with a 2.7% growth forecast over 2018. Spend will nonetheless top US$3.78-trillion.

And as for the future, Gartner expects 2021 to be laden with AI and intelligent wearables.

Feature image: jarmoluk via Pixabay (CC0)