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Asia IT spend to increase in 2010

Region not affected as badly as Western counterparts, and will see increase in IT spend as market rebounds, says new report.
Written by Liau Yun Qing, Contributor

Asia will see growth in IT spend next year as the market continues to rebound, according to Springboard Research, which adds that the region is emerging from the economic downturn much quicker than its Western economies.

In a report released Monday, the research firm said IT expenditure in Asia will increase 8.8 percent in 2010, compared to 6.4 percent this year.

Asian markets were not affected by the recession as badly as other economies, due to the continued growth of China, India and other markets, said Springboard.

IT products and services providers can expect 2010 sales to improve over 2009, the analyst added. However, despite the general optimistic outlook, market players will face challenges as buyers remain cautious and "increasingly skeptical" of vendors.

The Springboard report noted that organizations are expected to continue focusing on extracting greater value from existing IT investments, rather than on spending significant, new capital expenditure. They will also continue to look at reducing operational expenditure from both business and IT perspectives.

Springboard included data center transformations, IT manageability advancements and virtualization investments, as some of the ways organizations will be looking to reduce "traditionally high and stubborn costs".

The report also outlined 10 predictions that the research firm said will shape enterprise IT in the Asia-Pacific region next year:

  • 1. Analytics, or more broadly the evolution toward "intelligent solutions", emerges as a key driver of new business value.
  • 2. Convergence of computing platforms accelerates.
  • 3. Cloud computing momentum increases dramatically.
  • 4. Virtualization will play an increasingly critical role on the desktop.
  • 5. Mobile devices and applications are crucial for overcoming the digital divide in emerging markets.
  • 6. Collaboration continues to shine as organizations leverage initiatives put in place during the economic crisis.
  • 7. A wave of innovative new payment technologies emerge.
  • 8. Online developer platforms and communities will become the new ecosystem battleground and epicenter of application innovation.
  • 9. Social networking will be as accessible and commercialized as the Internet itself.
  • 10. IT abstraction forces CIOs to change or fall by the wayside.
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