Gartner: Global IT spend expected to reach $3.8 trillion in 2014
Datacenters and software are fueling what looks to be an uptick in IT spending this year, according to a new forecast from Garnter.
The market research firm projected that IT spending worldwide will rise by more than three percent this year for a projected goal of $3.8 trillion -- up from just over $3.65 trillion last year.
More than just bigger numbers, the observation highlighted in the report is not just that enterprise IT departments are spending more to upgrade to next-generation technologies, but more so on where they are spending their money.
The PC industry is repeatedly targeted by analysts to be on the decline, and that assessment is no different in this Garnter forecast.
Tablets are cited as a key replacement to traditional desktops and even laptop computers, demonstrating that "market power shifts to the buyer."
But the real money is being channeled to the technologies powering and running those mobile devices.
Datacenter spending is expected to reach $143 billion in 2014, up 2.3 percent year-over-year, which analysts pinpointed to be driven by cloud and mobile investments.
Software is the real vertical to watch with a projected target of $320 billion, up 6.9 percent from 2013.
Richard Gordon, managing vice president at Gartner, noted in the report published on Wednesday that enterprise software is expected to be the fastest-growing segment this year.
The Nexus of Forces (the convergence of social, mobile, cloud and information) continues to drive growth across key major software markets, such as CRM, database management systems (DBMSs), data integration tools and data quality tools. In fact, organizational adoption of data management technologies to support the Nexus will cause spending on DBMSs to surpass operating systems, making the former the largest enterprise software market in 2014.
IT and telecom services spending are also expected to rise by 4.6 and 1.3 percent annually to $964 billion and $1.655 trillion respectively.
Chart via Gartner