IT Spending Expected to Rise 4.5% in 2018

By January 18, 2018Info

By Steve Rosenbush

The contours of the new information technology market are coming into sharper focus, as emerging technologies dominate spending. CIO Journal’s Angus Loten reports that worldwide information technology spending this year is expected to hit $3.7 trillion, up 4.5% over 2017, as firms look to capitalize on the potential of blockchain, Internet of Things, and, of course, the cloud. An acceleration in spending on artificial intelligence is building, too, according to the forecast by Gartner Inc.

Growth has accelerated. IT spending last year totaled $3.5 trillion, up 3.8% from 2016, Gartner said. This year’s larger gains come as businesses across all industries continue to shift IT spending away from data center systems and into cloud-powered software and services, according to John-David Lovelock, a Gartner research vice president.

The agenda. Spending on enterprise software is projected to reach $389 billion, up 9.5% from 2017, as corporate budgets channel more funds into software-as-a-service. Other big gains include spending on devices, expected to grow 5.6% over last year to $704 billion, and IT services, up 5.5% to $985 billion. By 2021, spending on AI will generate an estimated $2.9 trillion in new business value, according to Gartner. But spending on data center systems is expected to grow 0.6% this year, to $179 billion, before declining by 0.2% in 2019.

Author Pam Beyea

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