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.”
Enterprise software spending is forecast to experience the highest growth with an 8.3 percent increase in 2019 (see Table 1). Software as a service (SaaS) is driving growth in almost all software segments, particularly customer relationship management (CRM), due to increased focus on providing better customer experiences. Cloud software will grow at more than 22 percent this year compared with 6 percent growth for all other forms of software. While core applications such as ERP, CRM and supply chain continue to get the lion share of dollars, security and privacy are of particular interest right now. Eighty-eight percent of recently surveyed global CIOs have deployed or plan to deploy cybersecurity technology in the next 12 months.
Table 1. 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 |
In 2018, data center systems are expected to grow 6 percent, buoyed by a strong server market that saw spending growth of more than 10 percent over the last year, and in 2018 will come in at 5.7 percent growth. However, by 2019 servers will shift back to a declining market and drop 1 percent to 3 percent every year for the next five years. This, in turn, will impact overall data center systems spending as growth slows to 1.6 percent in 2019.
