Global IT spend to top $3.7tn in 2019 boosted by cloud and AI tech

Global IT spend will jump to $3.79-trillion in 2019, an increase of 1.1% over 2018, suggests an April report by data analysis firm Gartner.

Buoyed by the strengthening US dollar, two segments are head and shoulders above the rest in terms of expenditure growth rates.

Enterprise software spend will see the largest growth spurt, ballooning by 7.1% in 2019 as companies splurge on cloud migration. IT services, boosted by spending on artificial intelligence technology, will also see an increase of 3.5% in 2019 over 2018. These segments combined make up $1.44-trillion.

Communications services however, the segment with the biggest overall expenditure, will remain flat in 2019, shrinking by 0.1%. Nevertheless, it’s still set to top $1.48-trillion.

Device expenditure is set to shrink by nearly 2% in 2019, this after a slight increase (0.3%) in spend in 2018 over 2017. It is, however, forecast to grow in 2020 by 3.5%.

In fact, Gartner suggests that 2020 will be a year of growth for all segments, with enterprise software ballooning a further 8.2% in the following year. Expenditure in the new decade set to increase to $3.92-trillion, a jump of 3.6%.

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