Global IT spending will total $3.7 trillion in 2018, Gartner predicts-- a 4.3% increase over 2017 spending worth around $3.5 trillion, with communications services driving the majority of spending.
Enterprise software and services should also continue showing strong growth. In fact, software spending is projected to grow by 8.5% in 2017, before growing by 9.4% in 2018 to total $387 billion. Meanwhile services spending is to grow 4% in 2017 to reach $931bn, and increase 5.3% in 2018 to reach $980bn.
Devices should also exhibit strong growth-- a first in 2 years-- with a 5.3% increase in 2017 and 5% in 2018. Increased ASPs for premium phones in mature markets, in part due to the iPhone 8 and X, together with businesses replacing PCs with Windows 10 machines, drive growth in the segment.
"Looking at market opportunity-- how profitable a market is, how big it is and how fast is it growing today and for the next 5 years-- we have identified the top markets that companies should be looking to be part of in 2018," the analyst says. "Global IT spending is showing little overall growth, as are traditional markets. These top 10 markets will be the key to remaining relevant and achieving growth in the future."
The 10 markets include 3 cloud segments (IaaS, iPaaS and cPaaS), and range from technologies enhancing the digital workplace (such as workstream collaboration, workforce analytics and video message-oriented middleware [MOM]), to security (endpoint detection and response), analytics (smart data discovery) and storage (in-memory data grids). All are tied to enable and enhance enterprise digital transformation efforts.
"The IT buying landscape is changing: Digital business transformation is an effort to create connected, platforms and new industry revenue streams," Gartner concludes. "Organisations that are not creating new digital business models or new ways to engage constituents or customers, are falling behind. Those vendors that do not move more quickly than their clients, will be left behind."
