UPDATED 23:47 EDT / OCTOBER 03 2017

EMERGING TECH

Gartner says worldwide IT spending will grow 4.3% in 2018

Gartner Inc. says organizations will hike their spending on global information technology next year as they step up their digital transformation efforts.

The analyst firm said at its Gartner Symposium/Itxpo in Orlando, Florida, Tuesday that it expects worldwide IT spending to hit $3.7 trillion in 2018, up from the $3.5 trillion its forecast for 2017. That amounts to total growth of 4.3 percent in overall spending on IT from 2017 to 2018, Gartner added.

Gartner breaks down its IT spending forecast into five segments: data center systems, enterprise software, devices, IT services and communications services. It predicts all five will exhibit growth in the next year, though not always strong. Communications services will drive the highest spending at $1.417 trillion in 2018, though up 2.2 percent from the $1.387 billion spend it forecasts for this year. The enterprise software segment will see the strongest growth, with spending set to rise 9.4 percent to $387 billion in 2018.

Also noteworthy is Gartner’s prediction for the devices segment, which will see growth for the first time in two years. Spending here will rise 5.3 percent to $664 billion in 2017, followed by 5 percent growth to $697 billion one year later. The main forces driving this growth will be Apple’s launch of the iPhone 8 and 10 and increased demand for new personal computers by organizations looking to upgrade to Windows 10.

Gartner analysts also identified 10 emerging technology trends within the above segments that are likely to drive this growth, including three cloud technologies: infrastructure as a service, integrated platform as a service, and communications platform as a service. Other technologies to watch include workstream collaboration, workforce analytics, video message-oriented middleware, cybersecurity, analytics and storage, all of which are linked to enabling organization’s digital transformation efforts.

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“Looking at market opportunity — how profitable a market is, how big it is and how fast is it growing today and for the next five years — we have identified the top markets that companies should be looking to be part of in 2018,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Global IT spending is showing little overall growth, as are traditional markets. These top 10 markets will be the key to remaining relevant and achieving growth in the future.”

Image: Akela999/pixabay

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