Gartner Foresees Strong IT Spending Into 2015: 10 Key Data Points

By Don Reisinger

Although times have been tough, 2014 should be a strong year for the worldwide IT market. Total spending this year is set to hit $3.75 trillion, up 2.1 percent compared with the $3.67 trillion that was spent all of last year across the IT market. Growth in 2013 was flat compared with 2012.

Looking ahead, Gartner forecasts that 2015 will be an even better year for IT vendors, with companies spending $3.9 trillion. That will represent a 3.7 percent gain over 2014, if the forecast turns out to be accurate.

IT services, which include outsourcing and management of cloud computing systems, will prove extremely important to the success of the sector in the next year. Although it’s still a relatively small portion of the market—$967 billion in 2014—it’ll grow to over $1 trillion in 2015, becoming the first segment since telecom services to hit that mark.

The strongest gains over the next couple of years will come from enterprise software. In 2014, spending on enterprise software will hit $321 billion, a 6.9 percent gain over the prior year. By the end of 2015, enterprise software spending will reach $344 billion, jumping 7.3 percent compared with this year. Those are by far the biggest year-over-year gains Gartner expects the market to see in the coming year.

Don’t undercut the importance of devices in the growth of the IT sector, Gartner says. The company notes that while growth will be relatively flat with just a 1.2 percent year-over-year gain this year, the devices sector will jump significantly in the coming years. In 2015, for example, Gartner expects spending to rise 5.8 percent to $725 billion. This year, total IT spending on devices will reach just $685 billion.

Telecom services, which include voice and data services through major carriers, will still contribute the most revenue to the IT space, generating $1.64 trillion in revenue in 2014. However, that figure is up just 0.7 percent year-over-year and will only climb to $1.67 billion next year. According to Gartner, growth in that segment will continue to be small.

Speaking of slow growth, Gartner says that data center systems spending has started to stagnate. The company reports that total spending on data center systems this year will hit $140 billion, representing a 0.4 percent gain year-over-year. In 2015, that number will jump to $144 billion. Data center systems represent the smallest part of the IT space and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Gartner did a deep dive into device IT spending this year, only to discover that tablet tastes are changing at a rapid pace. The research firm noted that in the IT market, sales of high-end tablets, like the iPad Air, will start to decline over the next year and a half, and be replaced by “lower priced utility tablets.” While unit sales might not be affected, total revenue generated from tablets will.

Big data, the trend that has caused many companies to rethink how they handle and analyze massive amounts of data, will be a driving force behind the growth in enterprise software. The company notes that database management systems will see explosive sales growth in the next several months as companies around the world try to grapple with the massive amounts of data they have.

Gartner believes that the IT market is now entering the third phase of its evolution. In the past, the research firm argues, IT has been about first, technology, and secondly, processes. Now, however, the IT space and spending associated with it is being driven by “a focus in the future on new business models enabled by digitalization.” Over the next several months, Gartner expects IT spending to focus on new business models and the digitization of data.