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Forrester: US IT spending growing even faster than we thought

Forrester now says US IT spending will rise by 10 percent this year, up from original projection 8.4 percent just a few months ago.
Written by Joe McKendrick, Contributing Writer

There's been no shortage of consternation about the state of the economy, but one area appears to be in the midst of a healthy recovery -- IT spending, particularly in North America.

According to a report in CIO, Forrester is projecting that US IT goods and services spending will jump 10 percent to $564 billion this year, and Canadian IT spending will expand by an fast-paced 16.2 percent, the consultancy predicts.  The US projection is up over the 8.4 percent estimate Forrester issued just last April.

Europe, mired in the euro and sovereign debt crisis, may see a slight drop in IT spending, down by 0.7 percent.

Why the acceleration in IT spending?  Forrester cites the fact that we are entering an "innovation cycle marked by adoption of new technologies." Andrew Bartel, Forrester's lead analyst for the report, parses it out this way in his summary of the report:

"Computer equipment and software will be the strongest categories, with PCs, peripherals, and storage equipment leading the computer category, and operating system software and applications setting the pace for software. Communications equipment purchases are looking up, especially for enterprise and small and medium-size business (SMB) buying. IT services growth will lag, with systems integration projects waiting for licensed software purchases to rise."

Not clear on what all this means, but we can also assume this is partially pent-up demand from purchases being held off the last couple of years. The innovation cycle may be bringing in new initiatives including analytics and data management, as well as the continuing shift to SOA-based middleware and now, private clouds.

And the other question is: are they doing even more of this in Canada?

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