Gartner Inc. said Monday that global information technology spending will hit $3.9 trillion this year as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to catalyze digital transformation around the world.

The research firm estimates that spending on IT will grow by 6.2% in 2021, after declining by 3.2% last year.

Most enterprises spent the last year shoring up their existing business operations as they adapted to remote work and social distancing, investing only in what they deemed to be mission-critical operations rather than new technologies. But Gartner says that will change in 2021 as chief information officers have had time to consider how they can expand their IT setups to support recovery and new growth.

As such, Gartner forecasts that every sector in the IT market will see growth in the next 12 months. It said enterprise software will see a strong rebound, growing by 8.8% this year due to the ongoing need for remote work setups. Meanwhile, devices will grow by 8% due to the continued demand from remote workers and online students.

Spending on communications services, data center systems and IT services will also grow, by 4.5%, 6.2% and 6%, respectively, Gartner said.

Altogether, worldwide IT spending related to the remote and hybrid work trends will total $332.9 billion this year, up 4.9% from 2020.

“COVID-19 has shifted many industries’ techquilibrium,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Greater levels of digitalization of internal processes, supply chain, customer and partner interactions, and service delivery is coming in 2021, enabling IT to transition from supporting the business to being the business. The biggest change this year will be how IT is financed, not necessarily how much IT is financed.”

In October, Gartner outlined some of the new technology trends that it expects to emerge in 2021, including the rise of the “Internet of Behaviors,” or facial recognition and behavioral analysis tech, and a new “anywhere operations” model that will emerge to support customers and workers wherever they’re located.

Gartner’s optimistic forecast tallies with a forecast from Enterprise Technology Research, which said in December it expects IT spending to grow by between 3% and 5% this year.

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