IT-Spending overview 2021
— Press release —
Following a difficult year, the world IT spending is expected to reach $3.8trn in 2021, a 4% increase on 2020.
The Pandemic is giving a push to technologies, including robotics, the internet of things, virtual workplaces and video conferencing.
According to Gartner, all IT spending segments — including data center systems, IT services, communications services, enterprise software and device spending — are set to grow in 2021.
The enterprise software spending will have the strongest recovery in 2021 with 7.2% growth, largely due to enterprise digital transformation efforts, the need to increase support for the working from home staff, and the need to deliver virtual services. Market leaders, like Microsoft, will race to add data centers, primarily in Asia and Africa.
Spending on data center systems will show the second highest growth, 5.2% in 2021. The need for supporting massively scalable architectures of the global web, social media, streaming media, artificial intelligence, cloud gaming, and of course, cloud providers, will drive hyperscale data center build-outs around the world.
4.1% growth in IT services spending means creating opportunities for IT and business services firms as companies need help with their migration to new platforms and the integration of new digital strategies. Digitalization will continue to ensure steady demand for professional services.
There will be less growth in devices, 4%, and communications services, 2.8%. The enterprises want to boost their digital business, restructure their operations in order to support a remote workforce and improve flexibility.Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and customer relationship management software will help them achieve this better than new devices.
However, there will be grey «clouds» in the fair sky of IT world, as cybercrime losses will make $6 trillion in 2021. Thus, the companies will need strong defenses to secure operations.
As a consequence of the above, the IT workforce will keep evolving into diverse world of specialists spread across many disciplines, mainly infrastructure, software development, cybersecurity, data center systems and others.
Entering 2021, no doubt technology will continue to play an important role to business success, and it will be another exciting year for IT. (Source: Gartner)