Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.8 trillion in 2019, an increase of 3.2 percent from expected spending of $3.7 trillion in 2018, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.
“While currency volatility and the potential for trade wars are still playing a part in the outlook for IT spending, it’s the shift from ownership to service that is sending ripples through every segment of the forecast,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “What this signals, for example, is more enterprise use of cloud services — instead of buying their own servers, they are turning to the cloud. As enterprises continue their digital transformation efforts, shifting to ‘pay for use’ will continue. This sets enterprises up to deal with the sustained and rapid change that underscores digital business.”
Worldwide IT Spending Forecast (Billions of U.S. Dollars)
| 2017
Spending |
2017
Growth (%) |
2018
Spending |
2018
Growth (%) |
2019 Spending | 2019 Growth (%) | |
| Data Center Systems | 181 | 6.4 | 192 | 6.0 | 195 | 1.6 |
| Enterprise Software | 369 | 10.4 | 405 | 9.9 | 439 | 8.3 |
| Devices | 665 | 5.7 | 689 | 3.6 | 706 | 2.4 |
| IT Services | 931 | 4.1 | 987 | 5.9 | 1,034 | 4.7 |
| Communications Services | 1,392 | 1.0 | 1,425 | 2.4 | 1,442 | 1.2 |
| Overall IT | 3,539 | 3.9 | 3,699 | 4.5 | 3,816 | 3.2 |
Source: Gartner (October 2018)
An expected global slowdown in economic prosperity, paired with internal pressures to cut spending, is driving organizations to optimize enterprise external spend for business services such as consulting. In a recent Gartner study, 46 percent of organizations indicated that IT services and supplier consolidation was in their top three most-effective cost-optimization approaches.
